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RIP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS 



IN 



FOREIGN LANDS. 




'>¥^. 



/ 



By RUPERT VAN WERT. ^|:>^-^^7 






^^^n.'^'^ims 



New York:- ■^s^^^^ 

THOMAS Y. CROWELL & CO., 

13 ASTOR Placb:. 



^>^ 






Copyright, i88i, 
By THOMAS Y. CROWELL & CO. 



It 



THE LIBRARY 
OF CONGRESS 

WASHINGTON 




BosTOS Stereotype Foitkdbt, 
No. 4 Peam, Strekt. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



-^ PAGB 

The Triangle Formed 9 

A Talk with Rip Van Winkle. — Will, Fred and Charlie. — Arrangements with 
the Travelling Correspondent. — Sailing of the Master. 

Rip Van Winkle in Ireland 14 

Queenstown. — Cork, — Shandon, Dublin, Drogheda. — Dean Swift. — Trinity 
College. — Belfast. 

Rip Van Winkle in Scotland . . . . ; . .32 

The Clyde. — Glasgow. — Edinburgh. — Holyrood. — Sir Walter Scott. — Mel- 
rose. — John Knox. — Burns. 

Rip Van Winkle in England . . . . . . '43 

London. — Oxford. — Exeter. — Leeds. — Birmingham. — Newcastle. — York. 
Sheffield. — Bedford. — Liverpool. 

Rip Van Winkle in France ....... 76 

Paris. — Palaces. — The Triumphal Arch. — Fontainebleau. — Versailles. — Lyons. 
Avignon. — Rouen. — Amiens. — Marseilles. 

Rip Van Winkle in Italy ........ 108 

Genoa. — Naples. — Pompeii. — Vesuvius. — Rome. — St. Peter's. — The Vatican. 
The Forum. — Florence. — Venice. — Verona. — Milan. — Pisa. 

Rip Van Winkle in Switzerland . . . . . . 180 

The Simplon. — Brieg. — Swiss Colleges. — The Glaciers. — Geneva. — Lausanne. 
The Rigi. — Berne. 



vi CONTENTS. 



Rip Van Winkle in Germany ....... 

Berlin. — Dresden. — Green Vaults. — Hamburg. — Heidelberg. — Wittenberg. 
Adelsberg. — Vienna. — Frankfort. — Luther. 

Rip Van Winkle in Belgium and Holland . . . . 

Brussels. — Hotels. — Waterloo. — Amsterdam. — Canals. — Rotterdam. — The 
Hague. — Haarlem. — Leyden. — Dort. 

Rip Van Winkle in Denmark, Norway and Sweden 

Higher Latitudes. — Copenhagen. — Christiania. — Stockholm. — The Dunes. 
Public Education. — Manners and Customs. 

Rip Van Winkle in Russia ........ 

Alexander IL — St. Petersburg. — The Tragedy. — Moscow — The Kremlin. 
Cronstadt. — Warsaw. — St. Ivan. 

Rip Van Winkle in Turkey 

The Golden Horn. — Constantinople. — The Mosques. — The Streets, — St. Sophia. 
The Seraglio. — The Bosphorus. — The Black Sea. 

Rip Van Winkle in Greece ....... 

Piraeus. —The Acropolis. — Mars Hill.— The Parthenon. —The Stadium. — The 
Temple of Herod. — Athens as it is. 

Rip Van Winkle in Sicily ........ 

Messina — Palermo. — Reggio. — Syracuse. — Etna. — Stromboli. — Products of 
Sicily. — Meeting with Scapegrace. 

Rip Van Winkle in Portugal ....... 

Gibraltar. — Lisbon. — The City Streets. — The Palaces. — Condition of the 
People. — Social Customs. — Productions. 

Rip Van Winkle in Spain 

Cadiz. — Malaga. — Granada. — Seville. — Cordova. — Toledo. — Valencia. — Madrid. 
Bull Fight. — Saragossa. — Barcelona. 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 





PAGE 


The Alcazar, Seville 


I 


On the Lee 


9 


Shandon 


14 


Queenstown 


19 


Strand Street, Liverpool 


20 


The Four Courts .... 


23 


Dean Swift's Birthplace 


25 


Grafton Street, Dublin . 


26 


The Clyde near Coulter 


32 


Glasgow 


33 


Douglas Castle .... 


. 36 


Oaks at Bradgate 


43 


Exeter 


46 


The Guildhall, Exeter . 


47 


Exeter Cathedral .... 


50 


Town Hall, Birmingham 


59 


Birmingham 


60 


Coventry 


62 


Exeter Cathedral— West Front . 


63 


Gateway, Jesus College 


64 


King's College .... 


65 


Elstow Church .... 


66 


Statue of Bunyan 


67 


Palace of the Trocadero 


76 


Paris Bread-Carrier 


79 


Old Paris 


81 


Cathedral of Notre Dame 


83 


Cathedral of St. Denis 


85 


Hotel des Invalides 


87 


Old Houses 


88 


Depot of Tract Society 


89 


Tower of St. Jacques . . . . 


91 


Fontainebleau .... 


93 



Lyons 

Avignon 

St. Ouen, Rouen . 

Amiens Cathedral 

Amphitheatre, Nimes 

Amphitheatre, Aries 

Mont St. Michel . 

Notre Dame de la Garde 

Peasant at Home . 

A Fernch School . 

The Capitol . 

Genoa from the Heights 

Vesuvius 

The House of the Questor 

Baker's Oven and Bread 

General View of Pompeii 

House of Panza 

Clearing a Street . 

Searching for Remains . 

Street in Pompeii . 

Gate of Herculaneum . 

Arch of Septimius Severus 

Castle of St. Angelo 

In the Forum 

The Mamertine Prison . 

St. Peter's and the Vatican 

Papal Benediction . 

On the Campagna . 

Castle of San Elmo 

Getting ready for a Start 

Florence 

The Baptistery, Pisa 

The Gondola . 



95 
96 

97 
100 

lOI 

102 
103 
104 
106 
107 
108 
109 
112 
118 
119 
121 
123 
126 
129 
132 

135 
141 

147 
148 
149 
153 
155 
157 
163 
169 
171 
172 
175 



Vlll 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



Cathedral of St. Mark . 






. 177 


On the Grand Canal 






. 178 


Torchhght on the Swiss Lake 


s 




180 


Chalets near Sepey 






. 181 


Brieg on the Simplon 






., 184 


Railway up the Rigi 






. 185 


Lausanne 






186 


On the Mer de Glace 






. 188 


Vitznau Station on the Rigi 






189 


Valley of Chamouni 






190 


Trying a Glissade . 






191 


Basle .... 






193 


High Street, Berne 






194 


Statue of Frederick the Great 




197 


Statue of Frederick Augustus 




199 


Bridge over the Elbe 




201 


Statue of Charles V. 






203 


Canal at Hamburg 






205 


Hamburg Market Woman 






207 


Heidelberg 






208 


Bacharach 






209 


Heidelberg Bridge • 






210 


Rat-Catcher's House . , 






211 


Wittenberg Market-Place 






213 


The Dragon Fountain . 






214 


Cavern of Adelsberg 






215 


Luther's House 






218 


Jews' Quarter 






219 


Windmills for Drawing off Water 




220 


Rotterdam ; The Old Harbor 




226 


Interior of a Dutch House . 




227 


Amsterdam 






229 


Lime Market . 






231 


The Poor District . 






233 


Bergen .... 






. 235 


Notre Dame . 






237 


Interior of Notre Dame 






. 239 


Street in Christiania 






240 


Winter Palace 






240 



Cathedral at Copenhagen 

The Vettifas . 

The Bourse 

Norwegian Wedding 

Castle of Rosemborg 

Camp in the Forest 

Transportation 

Swedish Lovers 

Sleighing 

Siberian Travelling 

Siberian Wedding 

Ice Transportation 

Street Scene . 

Turkish Mosque 

Temple of Sunium 

The Piraeus 

The Acropolis 

The Parthenon 

Greek Water- Carriers 

The Temple of Herod 

PozzuoH 

Stromboli 

Sicilian Costumes . 

Chapel of Santa Rosalia 

Syracuse 

Great Mosque, Cordova 

Barcellos 

Gibraltar 

Fish Merchants 

Tower of Belem 

Rue Neuve des Anglais, Oporto 

The Giralda . 

The Court of Oranges 

The Spanish Postilion 

The Muleteer of Granada 

Honey-seller of Madrid 

Royal Palace . 

The Bull-fight 

Leaning Tower, Saragossa 



RIP VAN WINKLE AWAKE. 




ON THE LEE. 




UPERT VAN WERT M^as the master of a school in one 
of the suburbs of New York. He had, on leaving college, 
founded this institution of learning, and somewhat ambi- 
tiously named it "The Polytechnic," and under his rule it had 
grown to be worthy of the designation. The master was universally 
beloved by his pupils, who were gathered from city and country. 
We should be obliged to go far back to find the origin of the nickname 
which his boys had good-naturedly substituted for the aristocratic 
" Van Wert." But however it came, it clung to him, though few 
teachers in the land could be found to whom it was so little appli- 
cable, if Rip Van Winkle represents a sleepy character. 

Master Van Wert had dismissed his school for the last time. 
Twenty-five years he had come and gone with each school-term, 
without one day of sickness or one serious trouble in his " little 



lO RIP VAN WINKLE AWAKE. 

kingdom," as he called his school. By frugal living he had amassed 
a little fortune in his laborious pursuit; and now, weary with the 
toil, had surrendered the institution to other hands, that he might 
spend a few years in foreign lands. It cost him many a pang to 
surrender to younger men the school which he had founded and 
nursed; but the silver in his hair, though he was not old, admonished 
him of the flight of time, and reminded him that now, if ever, he 
must carr}^ out his life-long plan of a journey around the world. 

With slow and silent steps he had turned from the throne of his 
power, and shut the gates of his little kingdom after him, and was 
sadly walking down the shady avenue, with his hands behind him, 
when his attention was arrested by the cheerful voice of one of his 
pupils. 

"Master Van Wert!" 

It was Charlie, one of his most beloved scholars, that hailed him. 

"Master Van Wert!" 

The sadness passed away from the master's face, and a pleasant 
smile overspread his handsome countenance, as he turned and faced 
his little friend. 

"What now, my boy?" 

"Why, sir, we all know that you are going abroad, to visit the 
countries of the old world, and see the places famous in history; and 
we have formed a society which we propose to call ""The Triangle.'" 

"The what?" 

" The Triangle, sir." 

"Well, who are we P and what is ^ The Triangle' to be? and what 
does it propose to do?" 

" Oh, sir, 7ve are Will, Hal, and I. ^The Triangle ' is a society of 
three." 

" Oh, I see, a mathematical society." 

" No, sir, a literary society, to meet monthly, and read such letters 
as you may be pleased to send us." 



THE TRIANGLE. II 

" So you suppose your old master will write to you every month 
for the two or three years that he ma}^ be absent." 

" Such is the humble petition of ^ The Triangle,' which I am 
deputed and authorized to present to you." 

"Well, my lad, you might have organized a society for a much 
worse- purpose than that ; and as I shall travel very leisurely from 
place to place, and as writing down my impressions will serve to 
deepen them in my own mind, and stamp the pictures of foreign life 
upon my own memory, I will agree to do as you request. On 
landing in Europe, I will commence my work, and send you a 
monthly budget, and continue to do so as long as I am on that con- 
tinent ; and if m}' jottings and pencillings, pen sketches and pictures, 
prove of sufficient interest to you to have them continued while I am 
on other continents, you may expect to hear from me." 

"Good! good! I will give you the thanks of the society in 
advance." 

"To whom shall I send my budget?" 

" To me, sir, care of my father." 

"Well, you may expect to hear from me in a few weeks — as soon 
after I reach the shores of the Old World as I have an opportunity to 
write, and anything to write about. I shall not give you a continuous 
narrative of my journeys, but pen and picture sketches of such places 
as I suppose will most interest you." 

" But, master, we have voted to call our society after you — the 
^ Van Wert Triangle.'" 

" What do the boys call me behind my back ? " asked the master 
with a smile. 

Charlie hesitated. 

"I think you know how they put my initials into shape, don't 
you ? " 

"Without any wish to injure your feelings or be disrespectful, they 
call you ^Rip Van Winkle;' but they all admit that you are wide 



12 RIP VAN WINKLE AWAKE. 

awake. And then they call you that because it is the nom de plume 
under which you are here know^n as a writer." 

"Why don't you call it 'The Rip Van Winkle Triangle?'" 

"Oh, that would not be respectful." 

" I don't know that I have any serious objection to the use of my 
name, but suggest that ' The Triangle ' would be more simple." 

"I will report to the society. But, master, we have done some- 
thing else — taken another liberty with you." 

A happy look came over the master's face as he saw the enthu- 
siasm of the lad. He had confidence in Will, Hal, and Charlie, and 
during the conversation memory had been taking him back to his 
earlier years, and bringing up the long-past and almost forgotten 
scenes when he was a boy; and his heart was stirred as the shadow 
and sunshine seemed to mingle in his own lost years. 

"What other liberty have you taken with me? Is it not enough 
that you have suj'reptitiously taken my name and attached it to your 
society, but must also commit some other atrocity?" asked the genial, 
good-natured pedagogue, with a mock expression of anger, and 
holding up his hand as if to repudiate some wrong. 

"Oh, all we have done is to vote 3'ou into our Triangle as 
honorary travelling correspondent. That is all." 

"And that is enough; but I will accept. Only, tell me first what 
salary I am to expect for my services abroad. Travelling corre- 
spondents are well paid: what am I to have?" 

"Well — as — to that, I suppose the salary will be paid in criti- 
cisms. You see, I am president, Hal is reader, and Will is to be 
critic." 

"And I am to be the victim! Ah, ha! ha! " 

"No, not that. Will will not be very hard on you. Only you 
must conform to the rules of writing and composition that you have 
laid down for us." 

"I suppose I must try to stand it, only, tell Will to be merciful, 



THE TRIANGLE. 



13 



for sometimes my letters will be written under great disadvantages 
and with very poor materials. I will sign my communications, "^ Rip 
Van Winkle.' " 

"That will be all right, master, only write as often as you can." 
The teacher gave a kindly reply and turned away, while Charlie 
ran off whistling, to meet his companions and tell them of his success 
with Master Van Wert, or " Rip Van Winkle," as the boys used to 
call him, and as he signed himself to newspaper and review articles. 

And as the boys call him " Rip Van Winkle," so will we; and as 
we follow him from place to place, we are to find out whether he 
was asleep or awake. The reader will find this volume to contain a 
fragmentary account of Rip Van Winkle's travels in Europe, written 
to " The Triangle " at home. The boys, as we shall see, received 
the letters, and read them with great interest and attention, discussed 
the various subjects and places brought to their notice, and criticised 
them according to the original intentions of the founders of the little 
reading society composed of the three fast, firm, and true friends, 
Will, Hal, and Charlie. 



H 



RIP VAN WINKLE 'S TRA VELS. 



IN IRELAND. 




SHANDON ON THE LEE. 



Rip Van Winkle had been gone six weeks when Charlie received 
a huge letter, upon which he summoned " The Triangle." When the 
members were all together, the envelope, bearing the English post- 
marks, was opened, and Hal began to read. He had a fine voice, 
which, under the Master, had been admirably trained. His reading 
was always effective, and remarkably so on this occasion, as the well- 
known handwriting of his friend abroad came under his eye. 



Belfast. 
From this fine Irish citv I send cons^ratulations to the — the — Tri- 
umvirate — no! the Triangle, I think the society was to be called. 



IN IRELAND. 1 5 

You know I sailed from New York in one of the Royal British Steam- 
ships, one fine morning a few weeks ago. You were standing on the 
pier when the noble vessel swung from her moorings and swept down 
the bay. I saw you waving your handkerchiefs, long after I had 
ceased to distinguish your faces. 

The feeling, on leaving one's own country and friends, is a very sad 
one, however great may be the pleasure we anticipate, when we lose 
the features of the kind friends on shore, when we fail to distinguish 
the forms that stand there waving us, with hat and handkerchief, a 
last " good-by," and when we turn from the spires of the city, the tall 
chimneys, and the shining roofs, and look forward to the changes 
which may occur as the months roll on; "Shall we ever return? 
shall we ever more meet those kind friends? shall we again behold 
the spires of yonder city? or, shall we be swallowed up in the deep? 
or, find a grave in the midst of strangers?" are the questions that, 
whether we will or not, force themselves upon us, as we leave all 
behind. 

And then to turn from home and friends, from the gay city, and the 
solid land, and look off upon the ocean, on which no sail is seen, no 
sign of land in view, nothing but one wide, dreary, billowy waste! 
It makes one feel as if he were cut olT from the rest of the race; as if 
he stood alone in the wide, wide world; and the feeling of loneliness 
which creeps over the mind, as he flings himself upon his narrow 
berth, are sad and oppressive. 

But on board the ocean steamers there is a sense of security which 
relieves the mind of all ideas of present danger. The voyage seems 
to be in a floating city, lodging at a first-class hotel, and surrounded 
by first-class companions. 

Our ship, though not one of the best or fastest, of the Cunard 
line of steamers, is a very safe and reliable vessel; and one is amazed 
to see the operations on board. To go down into the regions occupied 
by the engine seems like descending into Hades: the blazing fire, the 



l6 RIP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. 

intense heat, the coal-black firemen, who seldom come up into sun- 
light, the ponderous machinery, and the continual rumbling, hissing, 
steaming, give an idea of the world of the lost as depicted by poets 
and orators, and make you feel as if 3^ou had reached the infernal 
regions, and were among the inhabitants of darkness. Dante's Infer- 
no seems to be reached here. About sixty tons of coal per day are 
consumed, or seven hundred and twenty tons in a voyage of a dozen 
days. The running expense of the steamer is about five dollars per 
mile, or nearly fifteen thousand dollars for the whole passage. One 
hundred and ten men, including officers, cooks, porters, and sailors, 
are required to convey the huge floating hotel across the deep. 

I was surprised at the cooking-department; and with me it was a 
theme of wonder how, in a little cook-room, food could be furnished 
for two hundred or three hundred persons, with so much regularity 
and precision. Much of the time on board is spent in eating. Break- 
fast at eight o'clock, lunch at twelve o'clock, dinner at four o'clock, tea 
at seven o'clock, and a late supper between nine and ten o'clock. And 
my travelling companions had convenient supplies carefully put away. 
All these meals are furnished with a punctuality and sumptuousness 
that would do credit to a first-class hotel, and at the table one can 
hardly discover that he is not at the table of the Astor House, or the 
St. Nicholas, unless it be by a sudden lurch of the ship, which reminds 
him of sea-monsters and shipwrecks. 

On our outward passage we had little to break the monotony or 
disturb the quiet of the voyage. On Sunday we had religious services 
on board, and a naval chaplain preached; and seldom have I seen a 
more attentive audience. The service was held in the dining-saloon, 
and about two hundred persons were present. The ship's surgeon 
read the English church service, that being required b}' the laws under 
which these steamers sail. At the close of the readino: the sermon 
was delivered to a mixed company of Christians and infidels, vile and 
virtuous. 



IN IRELAND. 1 7 

With an excellent commander, an obliging company of servants, a 
pleasant circle of fellow-passengers, there were few incidents worth 
the time it would take to relate them. The chief feature of the voyage 
to me, however, was a fine view of several huge icebergs. The first 
was seen about dusk on the Saturday evening after leaving home. It 
was a huge lump of ice, of chalky whiteness, and lay like a rock on 
the bosom of the deep. It was estimated by competent persons to be 
about one hundred feet long,- and about sixty feet high. It looked 
cold and cheerless, and had the weather been thick, would have been 
a very uncomfortable neighbor. The great danger in crossing the 
Atlantic in the early part of the season arises from two causes — fire 
and ice. The former, on the British steamers, is provided against. 
The discipline of the crew, the drill of the commander and oflScers, 
the means for extinguishing flame, and the manner in which the ves- 
sels are built, make any serious fire almost out of the question. I 
think it would have been impossible for such a catastrophe to have 
occurred on board our steamer as swept away the poor, ill-fated Aus- 
tria, with her incompetent officers and undisciplined crew. But there 
are scarcely any provisions to be made against contact with ice, ex- 
cept ceaseless vigilance. Should one of these steamers strike an ice- 
berg, with her speed of ten or twelve miles an hour, she would 
doubtless be destroyed at once. It is supposed that the ill-fated Pa- 
cific, one of the Collins line of boats, was lost in this way. The iron 
steamer Persia, which started from New York about the same time, 
ran into an iceberg, which providentially happened to have been soft- 
ened by the action of the sea and air. So great was her speed, and 
so firm her iron ribs, that she drove into the floating mass of snow and 
ice nearly one-third of her length, carrying away her wheel-houses, 
and damaging her most seriously. There she was wedged in with the 
ice. A critical examination took place, ere any attempt was made to 
get her off", and fortunately she was found to be firm, and after some 
hours she was released from her perilous position. 



1 8 RIP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. 

The poor Pacific probably met with a hard iceberg, and at a fear- 
fial speed came in collision with it, and was sunk at once, not a single 
soul returning to tell the fearful tale. In a foggy day or night the ice- 
berg cannot be seen one hundred feet ahead, and as the speed is 
scarcely slackened, the danger is fearful when the monsters are near. 
On Sunday morning we saw a huge iceberg, supposed to be about one 
hundred and fifty feet high, and seven hundred feet long. It had three 
pinnacles, and the same chalky appearance of the one seen on the pre- 
vious evening. At four o'clock in the afternoon the cr}^ went through 
the ship, "An iceberg!" "An iceberg!" and we all rushed on deck 
to see one directly in our path. It was indeed a most magnificent 
spectacle. Its proximity to us caused the glass to fall many degrees, 
and the whole sky assumed a dismal appearance. The sight of this 
one inhabitant of ocean was worth all the toils and perils of the ocean- 
voyage. At first it looked like a huge cliff of chalk. As it came 
nearer its position changed, and it looked like a headless dromedary; 
then it assumed the appearance of a cluster of round towers set thickly 
together; and as we sailed within half a mile of it, and had a full, fair 
view, it took the shape of a dismantled castle. We could seem to see 
the huge Gothic windows, the high pinnacles, the wide doors, and the 
lofty proportions of a once elegant structure. It was an immense 
mass of ice, many times larger than the New York Post Office. 

These icebergs, drifting down from the north, and floating into 
warmer water, are undermined, and at times roll over, with a mighty 
crash, making the very ocean boil with fury for miles around. It is 
estimated that at least two-thirds of the ice is below the surface of 
the water; and one can easily perceive the danger of collision with 
such a monster. The first view of this sea-demon I shall never for- 
get. Its outlines are now as vivid in my mind as when I was gazing 
upon it. We soon, however, left it in the distance — the mighty thing 
which had been forming for hundreds of years in the cold north, 
was destined to dissolve and mingle with the waters of all seas. 



IN IRELAND. 



19 



Our steamer took what is called the Northern passage, that is, we 
went up around the north of Ireland, a passage more dangerous in the 
winter, but sixty miles shorter than the other. Ireland lies directly in 
the way of a vessel going to Liverpool from New York, and we are 
obliged to go around the north or south of it. I had hoped we should 
have gone to the south, as I wished to have a view of Qjieenstown, 
the port of Cork, so called because the present queen landed there on 
her first visit to Ireland, after her coronation. 




QUEENSTOWN. 

Our first view of land was obtained early on the morning of our 
second Sabbath out, and from that time until we reached Liverpool 
the coastviews of Ireland, Scotland, or Wales were in sight. We 
entered the river Mersey — a river of the utmost consequence to 
British commerce — about noon, and came to anchor about the 
middle of the afternoon, within view of the docks, churches, and 
houses of Liverpool. The custom-house officials came on board, 



20 



RIP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. 



and after the examination of baggage, the ship's company separated 
never to meet again in this world. 

Liverpool. 

Well, we are now in England, and begin our investigations by 

looking at the docks — huge basins, built of heavy granite blocks. 

As you approach, the shipping seems to be in the centre of the town, 

the masts only being seen above the toppling warehouses. Each 




STRAND STREET, LIVERPOOL. 



dock has its water-gate, and when a vessel wishes to go out, the tide 
being up, the gate is opened and the ship turned into the river. The 
extent and magnificence of these docks, which are all surrounded 
and enclosed Avith warehouses and stores for the reception of goods, 
will be understood when I tell you that the Salt-house Dock occu- 
pies an area of nearly five acres, and cost three millions of dol- 



IN ENGLAND. 21 

lars; the Albert Dock covers an area of nearly eight acres, and cost 
about four million dollars; the King's Dock has an area of more 
than seven acres, and cost nearly four million dollars; the Queen's 
Dock has more than ten acres; the Coburg dock has five acres; 
the Brunswick Dock has nearl}^ thirteen acres, and the construction 
cost an immense sum of money. There are others of equal extent 
and magnificence; and these docks are filled with vessels from every 
land under the sun. 

Though not a beautiful city, nor one perfect for residence, Liver- 
pool is not without its attractions in other respects. It has a most 
magnificent Sailors' Home, where hundreds of poor mariners are 
saved from destruction. For architectural taste and beauty, we 
hardly have a building in our city that will equal this benevolent and 
hospitable residence for the sons of ocean. St. George's Hall, a 
noble public hall, recently erected for musical entertainments, has no 
equal in our country. The floors are marble, set in beautiful many- 
colored mosaics; the walls and ceiling are highly ornamented; the 
beautiful pillars and arches create a fine eflfect, while one of the 
largest organs in the world pours out its rich liquid music over the 
people. 

There are churches and parks, public and private residences, upon 
which we have no time to linger. The city has grown up to a mam- 
moth community. In 1700 it had only five thousand inhabitants; 
now it has six hundred thousand. In the year 181 2, only four thou- 
sand five hundred and ninety-nine vessels^ with a tonnage of four 
hundred and forty-six thousand seven hundred and eighty-eight, 
entered this port. In 1867, twenty-nine thousand five hundred and 
fifty-one vessels, with a tonnage of nearly four millions, entered these 
docks. The revenues at the Liverpool custom-house in 1876 were 
about thirty millions of dollars, while the annual imports and exports 
of that city cannot fall much short of two hundred and fifty millions 
of dollars. 



22 » RIP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. 

But it was not my purpose to linger long in Liverpool, so we 
were soon efi 7'oute for Ireland. The ride through North Wales was 
interesting. The country is very grand, and some parts of it exceed- 
ingly beautiful. The villages through which we passed were filled 
with thatched-roof cottages and a poor but industrious people. Sev- 
eral proud castles lifted their turrets above us as ^we rushed on, or 
on the distant hills seemed to stand as sentinels over the surrounding 
country. We reached the Menai Straits in the evening, but it was 
light enough to see the Suspension and Tubular bridges. The former 
is ver}^ much like that at Niagara, and is a very noticeable work. 
The Britannia Tubular Bridge is a great wonder. It is an iron tube, 
constructed of sheets or plates of iron. These plates are about half 
an inch thick, and about three feet square, and are closely riveted 
together, making a sqaare tube wide enough for two trains of cars to 
pass each other, and high enough to clear the smoke-pipe of the 
engine. Strong iron knees and braces add to the strength of the 
tube, so that when the heavy freight-train passes over it, it is not seen 
to sag or even vibrate. The whole bridge is very long, but the tube 
is about three hundred feet. It is about one hundred feet from the 
water below. It was raised to the piers on which it stands by 
hydraulic pressure, and now, over a fearful chasm, supports itself 
by its own weight, while trains of cars, heavily freighted with goods 
and human life, rush wildly through it. The sheets of iron are three 
in thickness, and yet so riveted as to appear like one. It is doubtless 
the most wonderful bridge ever built. 

We reached Holyhead at eleven o'clock, and went at once on 
board a steamer bound to Dublin. The night was pitchy dark, and 
all the accommodations for sleepers were the settees and floors. But 
we slept well until about four in the morning, when one of our com- 
pany, who had the nightmare, gave a most unearthly yell, and we all 
started up, unable to get to sleep again. So we went up on deck, to 
look out upon the hills of green Erin, and watch for the towers of the 



IN IRELAND. 



23 



city of Dublin. They soon appeared in view; and at six o'clock we 
stood on Irish soil, in the capital of Ireland. 

Dublin. 
No city that I ever saw surprised me more than Dublin: none 
disappointed me so much. Though I knew it was called a beautiful 
city, I had no idea of being compelled to admit that in many respects 
wc have no city in America that equals it. The mam street of 
Dublin, the famous Sack- 
ville street, is claimed, 
and perhaps justly, as be- 
inof the most beautiful 
thoroughfare in the world ; 




THE FOUR COURTS. 



and many of the other prominent streets are very fine, and of them 
the people are justly proud. 

The public buildings will compare with those of any city in the 
world; and we rode from one to another in the light jaunting-car 
which is peculiar to Ireland. Let me describe it. It is a two- 
wheeled vehicle, somewhat like an old-fashioned baker's cart which 



24 I^IP VAN WINKLE'S TRA VELS. 

was tound in the streets of New England fifty years ago, but which 
you boys have never seen, with seats on two sides, the people sitting 
back to back, while the driver is in front. It would be a novelty in 
Central Park or on Boston Common; but it is just adapted to the 
wants of the people here. Constructed in a light and easy style, it 
is a charming carriage to drive about in. In all the places in Ireland 
which we visited, we found it used by all classes of people, the high 
and the low, rich and poor. Gay ladies and noble men alike were 
dashing gayly about from place to place in it; and seldom have 
I seen any conveyance which pleased me more than this. It is far 
more graceful and convenient than the cumbersome cab and the lum- 
bering hack of London. 

In such a vehicle we drove to the old Cathedral, founded and 
preached in by St. Patrick. It is a large building, three hundred feet 
long, considerably decayed. It is hung with the banners of the 
Knights of Ireland, and the nave is blazoned with coats-of-arms of 
living Knights of the Order of St. Patrick. In this cathedral is a 
tablet to the memory of Dean Swift; also one to the memory of an 
old and faithful servant of the dean, and one to Hester Johnson, the 
famous Stella of Dean Swift's letters. Beneath the church is a 
well, in the waters of which St. Patrick consecrated his first Irish 
convert. From this spot he went forth into all parts of the Green Isle. 

Dean Swift's house, or the house where he was born, is not now 
standing, but we rode to the spot where it once stood, in Hoey's Court, 
in one of the most wretched parts of the city. 

'"'" The Triangle " ought to study the life of Dean Swift as an illus- 
tration of the power of mind and laborious study to lift a poor unfor- 
tunate child above the accidents of his birth to honor and distinction. 

The Bank of Ireland is a noble building, and in the da37s when 
Ireland was an independent power, ere England had set her ruth- 
less heel upon the country's neck, was used as a parliament-house. 
The old hall of commons is now the magnificent banking-room; and 



IN IRELAND. 



25 



instead of Irish orators and statesmen, brokers and merchants meet 
there in largfe numbers. The house of lords remains the same as 
when the lords left it; their vacant chairs, their long table, and the 
various fixtures of such a room all remain as in the days of Irish 
power, and the room is used only once a year, — at the annual meet- 
ing of the directors of the bank. Where once the throne stood, now 
stands the statue of an English king. The building covers an area 
of two and a half acres, and 
is one of the finest banking- 



houses in the world, — con- 
venient and spacious within, 
imposing and grand with- 
out. 

Near the bank is Trinity 
College, a vast structure, 
forming a magnificent quad- 
rangle, and covering an area 
of several acres. The col- 
lege was founded by Queen 
Elizabeth in 1 591, and stands 
on the site of an ancient 
monastery. The front, facing 
the college green, is three 
hundred and eight feet in 
length, finely and elaborately 
finished in the highest style 
of Corinthian taste. Chapel, theatre, provost's house, and library, 
the latter of which is two hundred and seventy feet long, are all 
furnished with ample apparatus, filled with works of art and science, 
and enriched with rare histories and manuscripts. In the main 
squaie is an elegant bell-tower, ninety-two feet high, which pre- 




DEAN SWIFT'S BIRTHPLACE. 



sents to the eye a grand appearance. Some fifteen or sixteen hun- 



26 



RIP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. 



dred students are here educated, and the whole establishment would 
make such colleges as Hanover, and such universities as Brown, 
appear mean and small by the contrast. The college faces the bank, 
which across the Green, with its magnificent colonnades, its noble 
Corinthian porticos, its ornamented statues of Hibernia and Fortitude, 
— the one attended by Fidelity and Commerce, the other by Justice 
and Liberty, seems to vie with its sister of Intelligence in adorning 




GRAFTON STREET, DUBLIN. 

the home of O'Connell, the land of Emmet, and a noble company 
who have gone the way of all the earth. 

And the whole city is covered over with noble buildings, of which 
I have no time to speak, — the Custom House, with its superb dome, 
its pillars and statues, its antiquated representations, Neptune with 
his trident, Hope resting on her anchor, and other statues; its four 
decorated fronts, and the colossal image of Queen Victoria towering 
above the whole. The Post-Office, a noble Ionic structure, erected 
at a cost of two hundred and fifty thousand dollars; the huge low 
buildings known as the Four Courts; the Corn Exchange; the Col- 



IN IRELAND. 27 

lege of Surgeons, and numerous others, are all worthy of any city on 
the globe. 

We took a bird's-eye view of the city from the top of a column 
erected to the memory of Nelson on Sackville Street. It is one hun- 
dred and twenty feet high, and commands a fine view of Dublin and 
the environs. From that eminence we saw the city like a map 
spread out before us, — the streets, public buildings, parks, monu- 
ments, castles, and various public works. 

Having examined the city buildings, we drove about to see the 
streets. The house where O'Connell lived was pointed out to us, 
and several other noted houses "smq saw. We were particularly 
anxious to see the lower classes, but failed to find anything like Five 
Points in New York. The worst parts of Dublin were better than 
portions of New York or Boston; and I left Dublin convinced that 
for poverty, our own cities are at least equal with it. We hear great 
accounts of the wretchedness of Ireland. Has not America times of 
wretchedness? The Irish in this country are far more degraded than 
those at home, as a general thing, and we err in supposing that there 
are such extremes of misery in that land. 

From Dublin we took the cars northward for Drogheda. This, 
boys, is a noted old Irish town, of which you have read much in the 
history of the Irish wars. I wanted to see this town very much, for 
it has been a familiar name to me for half a century. When a child, I 
read Cromwell's Life, and there found the account of the terrible siege 
of that doomed town, and ever since I have desired to see the place. 
It is some fifty miles or less from Dublin, and we reached it at night- 
fall, after riding an hour or two through a most lovely country. We 
found a neat, comfortable, but small inn, and without waiting for 
supper, began our explorations. It answered my idea of an old Irish 
town. In a few of the principal streets, are very grand but dingy, 
gloomy, black-looking brick buildings, while out in the more remote 
streets are the cabins of the poorer people. We went into some of 



28 RIP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. 

them, talked with the people, and saw all we could of the forms of 
life. As one of these cabins will answer for a description of the 
whole, I present it. It was a cabin inhabited by an old lady of seventy 
years, her daughter, about twent37-five, a son, and a boarder. The 
building was an oblong, thirty by fifteen feet. The roof was thatched, 
the thatching being laid on about one foot thick. This thatching 
seldom leaks, and will last from four to six years. The straw is 
placed upon small poles, which serve for rafters. The house is divided 
into two apartments, by a curtain about six and a half feet high, thus 
making two rooms about fifteen feet square. The windows were four 
in number, each about eighteen inches square, the glass in five-inch 
squares, and the frame set firm in the stone-work of the building. 
The floor is the bare ground, damp and cold, but hardened. The 
fireplace is at one end, built of clay and stones, a mere rude pile to 
put the wood and fire into. The walls w^ere unplastered, but neatly 
whitewashed; the ceiling was the under side of the thatched roof A 
loom for the manufacture of Irish linen was in the room, and a piece 
of linen was in progress. We were told that a person, by working 
hard, might earn eight shillings, or two dollars per week! 

This cabin is a fair specimen of houses found all over Ireland, and 
thousands are much more wretched, being built of mud and rushes, 
and forlorn in the extreme, — nothing but huts. And thus the peo- 
ple live. 

There are a few noticeable objects here. Just on one side of the 
town is what is called the Magdalen Steeple, the large square tower 
of a noble church. The church fell down four hundred years ago, and 
yet this steeple still towers aloft, a most beautiful specimen of archi- 
tecture. It forms an odd, venerable ruin, to which a hundred stories 
of ghosts and hobgoblins have attached themselves. 

This town has had a dreadful history. Its natural and artificial 
defences were so formidable that Cromwell found it difficult to sub- 
due it. The old stern, iron nature of the Protector had been thor- 



IN IRELAND. 29 

oughly aroused against the Irish people. And he had reason to be 
aroused. If history has not been perverted, the Puritans, in those 
fearful times, were treated with most dreadful cruelty. Sir J. Temple, 
in his "Irish Rebellion," tells us: — 

" The Catholics burnt the houses of the Protestants, turned them 
out naked in the midst of winter, and drove them like herds of swine 
before them. If, ashamed of their nudity, and desirous of seeking 
shelter from the rigor of a remarkably severe season, these unhappy 
wretches took refuge in a barn, and concealed themselves under the 
straw, the rebels instantly set fire to it, and burned them alive. At 
other times, they were bound, without clothing, to be drowned in 
rivers; and if, on the road, they did not move quick enough, they were 
urged forward at the point of the pike. When they reached the river, 
or the sea, they were precipitated mto it in bands of several hundreds; 
which is, doubtless, an exaggeration. If these poor wretches rose to 
the surface of the water, men were stationed along the brink to plunge 
them in again wdth the butts of their muskets, or to fire at, and kill 
them. Husbands were cut to pieces in presence of their wives; wives 
and virgins were abused in the sight of their nearest relations; and 
infants of seven or eight 3^ears were hung before the eyes of their 
parents. Nay, the Irish even went so far as to teach their own children 
to strip and kill the children of the English, and dash out their brains 
aofainst the stones. Numbers of Protestants were buried alive — as 
many as seventy in one trench." 

Burning under wrongs like these, Cromwell had been sweeping 
through unhappy Ireland, and now had arrived at Drogheda, and on 
the 3d of Sept., 1649, was encamped before the walls. The famous 
and brave Ormond had planted behind those walls his heaviest cannon 
and his choicest soldiers, and deemed his position impregnable. For 
six days did Cromwell labor to fortify the neighboring hills, and when 
all was ready, his red flag was hoisted, and his iron rain began to fall 
upon the city. You know the historic facts; the siege continued until 



30 RIP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. 

Drogheda was one vast pile of ruins, one common receptacle of 
death. The streets ran with blood; the doomed people cried for 
mercy in vain; hundreds were driven into a wooden church, which 
was set on fire, and they were consumed; and in ancient or modern 
warfare scarcely an instance can be found to equal this terrible 
revenge. This scene rose before us as we walked those streets, once 
slippery with blood, and as we gazed upon the relics of that fearful 
siege. 

But the next day we were obliged to leave, and taking a north- 
ward course, by where the famous battle of the Boyne was fought, by 
the very spot whereon the tent of the King was pitched, where he 
watched the battle, to Belfast, in the distant North. Belfast is called 
"The Athens of Ireland," and is a very fine place. We visited the 
public places: the "Queen's College," the new "Custom-house," and 
" Stamp-ofl[ice," and various public buildings. But we spent the most 
time around the manufactories, going through, and spending hours in 
the works of the "York Street Flax-Spinning Company." This estab- 
lishment, for the manufacture of linen, employs three hundred men, 
and twelve hundred females. The latter, from children of twelve to 
w^omen of fifty, were barefoot, very few had shoes on. The floors 
were of brick, cold, oily, and damp. I could but contrast this manu- 
factory with those I had been accustomed to see in America, where 
neatness and even gentility are found. The process of flax-manu- 
facture would not be new to you, and I need not describe it. 

I have thus selected three Irish towns to give three phases of Irish 
life, — Dublin, the capital; Drogheda, where the old Irish church is 
found unchanged; and Belfast, a literary city, where high intelligence 
mingles with growing industry. We saw other spots in Ireland, but 
as my time has expired, I must pass them by without notice. My 
recollections of Ireland are most happy. Naturally, it is one of the 
most beautiful and fertile countries on the earth. As we passed through 
Dunleer, Dundalk, Portadown, and other places, the whole country 



IN IRELAND. 31 

seemed to be alive with industry and fertility. The lowest valleys 
and the highest hills were alike glowing with the richness of the sea- 
son. No wonder the Irishman is so proud of the land which gave him 
birth. Perhaps it would not be unjust to say that the Irishman, as 
seen in America, is not the type of the Irishman seen in Ireland. 
With some exceptions, the poorer classes go to the United States, and 
they are not fair specimens of what are left behind. 

Having seen enough of the country to obtain a tolerable idea of 
its resources, scenery, and people, I went down to the pier, and took 
the steamer for Glasgow; and, as I bid you good-night, you may 
imagine me standing on the deck of the little steamer "Reindeer," 
which is to bear me over to Scotland, to which country I shall ask 
you to accompany me at the next meeting of the "Triangle." 

Rip Van Winkle. 



32 



RIP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. 



IN SCOTLAND. 





THE CLYDE, NEAR COULTER. 



The interest excited by the first letter of Rip Van Winkle led the 
Triangle to expect the next with the utmost anxiety. The days did 
not fly away fast enough. But before the time came for the arrival of 
the letter, it was decided that a few friends should be invited. The 
day at length arrived, and the letter. Hal brought his two sisters; 
Will came with two boys a little older than himself; while Charlie, 
being president, had taken the liberty to bring two young men and 
two young ladies. The visitors gave eclat to the occasion, and the 
members of the club were conscious of inaintaining the dignity of 
the organization. Charlie struck the table with his gavel and called 
the club to order. Hal read the records. Will moved that distin- 
guished strangers present be invited to debate on all subjects and vote 
on none. Charlie put the question, and Hal voted it — unanimously. 
Then the correspondence of Master Van Wert was opened. 




Iiliilllililiitlililllllllilllliiliiiiiiifa^^ 



34 



RIP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. 



"Give silence all," said the president, "while the budget of our 
travelling correspondent is opened, and the contents read." The seal 
was broken, and the well-known handwriting of Rip Van Winkle 
was seen, and this is what he wrote: 

Glasgow. 

Early morning found us in the river Clyde, on our way to this clean 
and beautiful city. Going up we touched at Greenock, and passed 
Newark and Dumbarton Castles, so picturesquely situated on the 
river, and reached the city just as the bright morning sun began to 
pour its broad beams upon the earth. I had m}^ mind made up about 
Glasgow. I thought it was the Liverpool of Scotland, a commercial 
cit}', filled up with sailors and laboring men, and subject to changes 
and fluctuations, which made it undesirable as a residence, and of no 
great interest to the traveller. 

But I soon found that I had mistaken the place entirely, that m}' 
idea of it was erroneous altogether; for instead of being a confused 
and inelegant city it was one of the finest I had ever seen. The 
houses and stores are elegant, the parks well laid out and finely cared 
for, the streets wide and clean, and the whole city having an elegance 
for which I was wholly unprepared. 

After taking breakfast, we drove out to the Necropolis, one of the 
most finely located cemeteries I ever saw. It is situated on the side 
of a high hill, and separated from the city by a deep ravine, which 
is crossed by a fine bridge. The' monuments rise one above the 
other, the hill being terraced to the summit. Nothing could be 
finer than the first view of this charming spot. At a single glance 
the whole ground is seen; the monuments and garniture of the 
place are all spread out to the eye in one magnificent slope of 
beauty. We crossed the bridge, and by winding paths reached 
the summit, and were greeted with a glorious view of the country 
for many miles around. 

In the centre of the cemetery, and most conspicuous among the 



IN SCOTLAND. 



?^S 



works of art found here, is a high pillar, sun. ounted by a colossal 
statue of that true-hearted old reformer, John ilnox, whose power at 
the Throne of Grace made popish Queen Mary say that she " feared 
the prayers of John Knox more than all the armies of England." 
Well she might, for the King to whom the reformer prayed had more 
power than all the armies of the world. The pedestal is about 
forty feet high, and on the top stands Knox. His cap is on his 
head, his gown enfolds his person, his long beard hangs upon his 
bosom, and you see the iron firmness written on every feature. The 
base of the pedestal is covered with inscriptions to the imperishable 
memory of men who sealed their devotion to truth with their lives. 

Here, too, is the monument of John Dick, D.D., who died in 
1833; also a very fine statue of William McGowen, a prominent 
Protestant merchant, and author of several Protestant works; also a 
fine monument to the memory of Charles Tenant, who died 1858. 
The venerable old man sits in his chair on a pedestal. Thus he died, 
and his sons reared this pile. Also a most elaborate and exquisite 
monument to John Henry Alexander, who died in 185 1. It is one 
of the most finished pieces of sculpture of the kind in the world. 

Many eminent men of all professions and ranks lie here, and 
their monuments look down upon the city below, as if to remind the 
people of the awful conquests of death. I dwell thus long upon this 
spot because of the beauty of its location and the honored dust which 
]S here entombed. 

From the Necropolis we went to the cathedral, which is at the foot 
of the hill, across the ravine. Entering the porter's lodge, we took a 
guide in handsome livery, who went in with us. This cathedral has 
been built at different periods, part having been added to part, at 
intervals. The main edifice was built by Bishop Josceline, in 1408. 
The crypts in which some of the old Scottish kings lie entombed 
were built in 1490. Other parts of the building go back to an earlier 
date. The old well from which the priests and bishops drew the 



36 



RIP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. 



holy water was shown us; and we went into many dim old chapels 
which required no effort of imagination to make them look as if they 
were familiar with dark and horrid deeds. In visiting the public 
edifices, driving through the streets, wandering over the public parks, 
our time in Glasgow was spent. The beauty of the houses m the 
court end of the city, the public squares there laid out, the noble 

churches there erected, gave me a most delightful 

idea of the place. 




DOUGLAS CASTLE. 



Edinburgh. 
Leaving Glasgow, we hurried to Edinburgh, about two hours' 
ride distant, where we spent several days. Edinburgh is a peculiar, 
yet a very noble city. It has an old town and a new town, lying on 
each side of a deep ravine, the bed of which is occupied with rail- 
road tracks and depots. You have only to picture to yourself a deep 
valley, with long ridges on each side. On the south side is the old 



< 



IN SCOTLAND. 



37 



town, with its houses rising up six, eight, and ten stories; its vener- 
able old churches, its narrow, crooked streets, its impoverished 
inhabitants, its squalid wretchedness; and on the other side, occup}^- 
ing the slope of the hill, the new town, with its wide streets, well 
laid out parks, costly church edifices, noble public buildings, and 
fashionable people. Opposite to each other, on the right and left 
banks of the ravine, the two towns slope towards each other, one the 
representative of the past, with its dim old memories, and the other the 
representative of the present, with its improvements and conveniences, 
its luxuries and elegancies. 

There is much in Edinburgh to interest and please a stranger, 
especially an American. Among them is the cemetery where repose 
the ashes of the noble old covenanters. Several hospitals, among 
them one for poor children, founded by James Donaldson, who left 
for this purpose about one million of dollars. It accommodates three 
hundred children. The building w^as erected at an enormous expense. 
Also one erected and endowed by George Heriot, for fatherless boys, 
and many other noble institutions of the same kind, which owe their 
existence to private munificence. There are in Edinburgh many 
private houses of note, none more so than the building known as 
the home of John Knox, in High Street. I have said to you that 
Edinburgh lies on two sides of a ravine, the old town being on one 
side, and the new town on the other. On the new town side runs 
parallel with the valley a noble street — the Broadway of the new 
town; on the old town side is a long, crowded street, — filled with 
churches and stores, and houses of six, and even ten stories, — irregu- 
lar, and full of people, running the whole length of the city on that 
side. In this street, which in old times was the main thoroughfare of 
Edinburgh, is Knox House. The sleeping-room and study of the 
reformer are still shown for a trifling fee. On the outside of the 
house, near the window from which he used to harangue the people, 
is an effigy of Knox in the pulpit, done in stone. On one of the out- 



38 A'/P l^AN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. 

side walls is an inscription, " Love God above all, and your neighbor 
as thyself." There is also a stone set in the front of the house bearing 
the name of Jehovah in English, Latin, and Greek. In this old house 
lived a man whose name shook thrones, and whose dead hand, yet 
reaching from the old churchyard of St. Giles, holds the conscience 
of that religious people. 

And as one wanders about the city, he will be pointed to several 
houses of much historic interest : one in which Cromwell tarried in 
1648; one in which Lord Monboddo and the "fair Burnet," his 
daughter, immortalized in the stanzas of Burns, resided; and many 
others noted for events which have been used to deepen the plot of 
the novelist, or lend wings of flame to the orator and poet. Just 
outside the city is the site of the cottage where lived old David 
Deans, and Jeanie and Effie, all of whom figure so terribly in the 
" Heart of Midlothian." In wandering about Edinburgh, you find 
many streets mentioned as "Canongate," " Cowgate," &c., also you 
read of " closes," such as " Sellar's Close," " Craig's Close," " Flesh 
Market Close," and the like. These gates are streets, deriving their 
names from some ancient gate which long since has passed aw^a3^ 
The closes are long narrow alleys running from the public streets, 
and are densely filled with people. From High Street several of 
these closes proceed. They are from five to twelve feet in width, 
and the houses run up seven or eight stories high, and each story is 
crowded with families. It is a curious sight, on a fine day, to walk 
through High Street just as the sun goes down. The people have 
done work, swallowed their hasty supper, and are pouring out into 
the street, shoeless, hatless, bonnetless — men, women, and children, 
all talking, all earnest. The street, as far as 3^ou can see, is a mass 
of heads; carriages are obstructed, foot-passengers find it diflScult to 
get through ; and the spectacle is one to be witnessed in no other city 
of the globe. The contrast between this narrow, long, densely filled 
street and rich, aristocratic Princes Street, on the other side of the 



IN SCOTLAND. 39 

valley, is marked and striking. There all is quiet, save when gilded 
carriages drive along, or richly dressed ladies sweep the noble pave- 
ments; and one who should take a view of the two streets would not 
imagine that they belonged to the same city or nation. For magnifi- 
cence of location and beauty of public buildings, few cities can boast 
as much. 

Our best glance at the city is from Sir Walter Scott's monument, on 
the slope towards the new town, which commands an extensive view of 
Edinburgh and its environs. This monument is two hundred feet six 
inches high; the foundation is fifty feet below the soil; two hundred 
and eighty-seven steps lead to the summit, and the cost of its erection 
was eighty thousand dollars. In a clear day the country for twenty 
miles around can be seen from its summit. As we stand there, two 
hundred feet above the ground, the people are seen surging along 
below: away in one direction is the castle, crowning a bare and 
rugged precipice; away in an opposite direction is Calton Hill; and 
still away in another direction are the famous Salisbury crags and 
A-rthur's Seat. Nearer at hand are the Royal Institution, the Free 
Church College, Holyrood Palace, the churches, with old St. Giles 
like a mother among her children, and all around green parks dotting 
the landscape with great beauty. Away off in the distance are seen 
the rolling waters of the Frith of Forth, on one side, and the high 
houses of the old city, and on the other the aristocratic residences 
of the new city. Descending from the monument, we turn and give 
it a parting look. It is not a simple shaft rising in the air, but a neat, 
elaborate, Gothic edifice of red sandstone, with arches, pinnacles, 
carved work, and skilful facings, and many-formed finials. Within 
the structure is a statue of Sir Walter, who sits in his chair, while 
Scotland and the world come to pay homage to his lofty genius and 
splendid abilities. 

Leaving the monument, we go out to Holyrood Palace. This old 
palace is a place of much historic interest. It was founded by King 



40 RIP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. 

David I. as an abbey, but in time became the residence of the Scot- 
tish kings. It is most noted for having been the town residence of 
Mar}', the beautiful but unfortunate Queen of Scots. It vv^as here 
that Mary w^as married to Lord Darnley, and here her secretary and 
probable lover, David Rizzio, w^as slain. Queen Mary was the 
daughter of Mary of Guise; her father she never saw. The stranger 
stands in Princes Street and looks down into the ravine before him, 
ever}^ spot of which seems a bed of flowers: he sweeps his eye 
around the horizon, and his gaze is interrupted by the old castle, the 
crown-like dome of St. Giles, the famous Arthur's Seat and Salisbury 
Crags, Calton Hill with its monuments and works of art, — and he 
takes in at once a panoramic view which is truly enchanting. 

Melrose. 

We left Edinburgh, earl}'' one day, for Melrose, a name which will 
at once suggest pleasant associations. The country through which 
we rode was very lovely, but less so, we thought, than Ireland. Mel- 
rose is about two hours' ride from the capital, and is a small and 
pleasant town, surrounded by high hills, and beautifully picturesque. 
A comfortable inn, of the old style, just such as Sir Walter Scott 
writes about in his historical novels, furnished us with a home. Our 
room, at night, was an oaken-finished room, twenty-five by twenty feet, 
dim and dreary. The ceiling was eighteen feet high, and arched. 
Two beds, heavily hung with crimson drapery; a large table, with sev- 
eral candles on it; a large, old-fashioned sofa; the heavy red window- 
curtains, made it a strange abode for the night. The panelled walls 
looked as if they were furnished with sliding-doors, and the knock on 
them was hollow and echoing. One or two old portraits hung on the 
walls, and the eyes seemed to look down upon us from other days. 

The sole object of the traveller in visiting this place is to see the 
old Abbey, one of the grandest ruins in the world. It was founded in 
1636, and completed ten years afterward. About the beginning of the 



IN SCOTLAND. 4 1 

present centur}^, an effort was made to repair it, and use it for a church, 
but the attempt was early abandoned. The roof is gone. The nave 
is two hundred and fifty-eight feet long, and seventy-nine high. The 
arches of the transept and the gorgeous pillars still remain. The 
Gothic windows, the doorways, and many other portions of the edifice 
are in a wonderful state of preservation. 

I can give you no idea of this magnificent ruin, as we saw it, — the 
moss growing on the walls; the beautiful carved work rusted by the 
hand of time ; the last rays of the setting sun streaming through the glass- 
less windows, all form a vision of mournful loveliness such as one sel- 
dom is permitted to witness. A bell and clock, put up more than fifty 
years ago, still remain, and at vesper-hour the bell sends out its peal. 
Beneath a stone the sacred heart of Bruce is said to lie. Douglass 
failed to carry it to Palestine, and tradition says it is here deposited. 
The Wizard's tomb, so familiar to the readers of Walter Scott, also 
meets the eye. Effigies of the departed heroes and ecclesiastics are 
numerous. Figures on the walls, within and without, peer at us, and 
seem to mutter from their stony lips. The light, airy stone-work is 
enchanting, and the delicate tracery seems to be the production of 
dreams rather than a reality standing out before us. As I looked up 
through the rootiess arches, I thought of that truthful passage from the 
" Lay of the Last Minstrel " : 

" The corbels were carved, grotesque and grim, 
And the pillars with clustered shafts so trim, 
With base and capitals flourished around, 
Seemed bundles of lances which garlands had bound." 

We lingered long amid these scenes, a guide relating to us each 
legend connected with the edifice; and now, though weeks have 
rolled away, my thoughts go back to that shadowy place where the 
spirits of the dead seem to hover on noiseless wings. The time for 
visiting the ruins is the moonlight evening. That is the time Sir 
Walter Scott used to come, and draw inspiration from the scene. We 



42 



RIP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. 



saw it in the rays of the setting sun, and lingered there until gray 
evening threw her sombre shadow over the place. 

We did what every stranger in Scotland should do, ascend into 
the far north to the regions of the famous lochs, and to the glorious 
scenery of the hill country. The wild scenery, the high hills, the 
grandly picturesque landscapes of Scotland are north of Edinburgh. 
One must go up and see the highlands, the regions of Rob Roy 
McGregor and the wild clans that, with a better age, have passed 
away. He must see Ben Lomond and Ben Nevis, and wander 
throuerh that section where are 



*&' 



"Crags, knolls, and mounds confusedly hurlc^ 
The fragments of an earlier world ; 
And mountains that, like giants, stand 
To sentinel enchanted land." 

To get at the Scotch heart, you must go among the highlanders, 
who draw in the spirit of liberty with every breath. These hills have 
given to the world man}/ a chivalric spirit, to say nothing of Wallace 
and Bruce, and the heroes who have immortalized their names on an 
enduring but bloody record. What a galaxy is presented to our view 
when we mention the names of Walter Scott, whose genius made 
the highlands famous; of Robert Burns, who sang the praises of his 
much loved isle; of John Knox, who shook the thrones of kings; of 
Chalmers, the leader of a second Reformation; of Pollok, whose 
"Course of Time " has been read in every land; and all that noble 
race that is still producing itself in such men as Hugh Miller, Peter 
Bayne, Wardlow, Cavendish, and a host of others. Edward Everett 
sa37S that: "The throne and sceptre of England will crumble into dust 
like those of Scotland; Windsor Castle and Westminster Abbey will 
lie in ruins as poor and desolate as those of Scone and lona, before 
the lords of Scottish song shall cease to reign in the hearts of men." 

Rip Van Winkle. 



IN ENGLAND. 



43 



IN ENGLAND. 




OAKS AT BRADGATE. 



The next meeting of "The Triangle" was like the last, except 
that more strangers had been invited in, and a pleasant social interview 
took place before the real business of the evening was brought on. 
The piano-forte was brought into requisition, and music and song 
filled up an hour; and at its close, Charlie, with all the gravity of a 
judge, announced the letter from the Club's travelling correspondent. 



44 J^ii" VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. 

Newcastle. 

I have been in England a few weeks, and literally journeying 
about from place to place, so I shall not give an account of the places 
in the order in which I visited them. As we rode down from Scot- 
land, the beauty of England began to be seen; and but for the indus- 
tries of the countries, — the shops, foundries, and manufactories which 
everywhere appear, — the country would seem like one great park, 
full of natural scenery of the most delightful variety. 

Leaving the Scottish border line, crossing the Tweed, the traveller 
soon comes to Newcastle, a place famous for its coal mines and mining 
operations. The ride is along the shore of the German ocean, the 
waves of which almost splash upon the iron track over which we pass. 
Newcastle is a great city of two hundred thousand people, and to a 
stranger, a most disagreeable one. It was the blackest city I ever saw. 
We went in over the tops of the houses, the tracks in England not 
being laid on a level with the common roads. All the buildings ap- 
peared to be black with smoke, the streets were black with pulverized 
coal, and the faces of the people seemed to be begrimed with the 
dust and steam. A coal-mining town generally looks dismal. The 
clouds of black smoke which hang over it from January to Decem- 
ber, begrime and soot the houses until the original color is lost, and 
streets, houses, churches, and fields all bear the same sombre hue. 
The whole region around Newcastle is a coal region. The very 
streets and houses of the town, and the fields for miles around, are 
undermined. The excavations run in all directions. The coal pits 
are very deep, and a descent is attended with some difficult}^ and dan- 
ger. Some of them have scores of horses and ponies in them which 
never see the sunlight from year to year, and often the men do not 
come up from month to month. The ignorance of these miners is 
terrible. We were told by respectable persons that man}' of them 
are put into the pits so young that when they come to manhood they 



IN^ ENGLAND. 45 

do not know their own names. They are called "Dick," or "Bob," or 
"Tom," or "Bill," and that is all the name they have. Coal is very 
cheap. The nut coal sells to those who cart it away, at about one 
shilling per ton. The furnace-size coal sells for a few shillings more. 
The nut coal is deemed almost worthless, and formerly was burnt in 
large quantities, to have it out of the way. 

I said the first view of Newcastle was a black one. All around 
the city burned the lurid fires of a hundred collieries and foundries. 
Beneath us the black chimneys, on the black houses, located in the black 
streets, send up a black, dull, sooty smoke. The people, too, seemed 
to have just come up from the black regions under ground, where the 
damp, cold sweat drops from the walls, and the torch flickers on the 
perpetual darkness. The river Tyne runs through the place, but it 
does not wash the black stains away, but itself becomes defiled, and 
rolls on its inky tide to mingle with the purer waters of the sea. 

A ride of four hours brought us to York, a place quite different 
from Newcastle. The streets, houses, and people all looked clean 
and neat, and an air of quietness reigned over ever3^thing. The hotel 
at which we stayed was as quiet as a village inn. York reminded me 
of the good old city of Salem; and as I walked out in the evening, 
I almost imagined I was moving amid the scenes of my youth. It 
has but a small population, and most of them are people of wealth 
and leisure; and one feels, as he walks along the streets, that he is in 
the midst of a people of refinement and luxury. 

The chief object of distinction in York is the venerable minster 
or cathedral church. The last hour before retiring at midnight we 
spent in walking around this immense structure, in gazing upon its 
towers as the pale moonbeams fell upon them and gilded them with 
silvery light. You know this minster is one of the wonders of the 
world, and any description I can give of it will fail to do it justice, 
or convey to your minds any idea of its vastness and magnificence. 



IN ENGLAND. 



47 




THE GUILDHALL, EXETER. 



It shows none of the signs of dilapidation peculiar to many of the 
buildings in all these old English cities. We wonder, with our 
Yankee tastes, why they are not pulled down, and more modern ones 
put in their places. At home we are accustomed to see every old 
structure disappear before the march of trade. Nothing seems sacred. 
Even Faneuil Hall and the old State House in Boston, and Indepen- 
dence Hall in Philadelphia, can hardly be keot from the hand of 



48 RIP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. 

Vandalism. But in England it is otherwise. There exists in the 
minds of the people a reverence for age, and venerable buildings are 
guarded rather than desecrated. The Guildhall shows its antiquity, 
and, instead of being pulled down, is allowed to stand, as an inhabitant 
of a past generation. 

There are two little trips that must be made from London. Every 
one goes to Hampton Court and spends a day there. This is a pal- 
ace on the Thames, a few miles from the city. It was once the palace 
of Cardinal Wolsey, from whom it passed to the government, and is 
one of the man}' residences of the royal family. For many years it 
has been a place of festivity and crime. Hanging in dusty silence, 
in the ancient halls, are more than one thousand portraits and pictures, 
and the connoisseur of art can spend weeks in viewing the works of 
the old masters. On these walls are the likenesses of some of the 
best and noblest, and some of the frailest and worst creatures that 
ever lived — indiscriminately mingled. Here is the portrait of Queen 
Catherine, consort of Charles II., who, broken-hearted by the irregu- 
larities of her husband, called him to her bedside to see her die after 
she was given up b}' her physicians, and so affected was he that 
he shed tears. These tears falling on her forehead, an evidence of 
unexpected kindness, gave a check to her disease, saved her life, and 
she outlived her husband twenty years. Here is the portrait of Lady 
Denham, who married at eighteen Sir John at the age of seventy-nine, 
and not loving the old man, and being detected' by him in a love intrigue 
he poisoned her by mixing poison in her morning cup of chocolate. 
Here is the Duchess of Cleveland, of whom Bishop Burnet says: "She 
was a woman of great beauty, but enormously wicked, voluptuous, 
foolish and imperious." Here are all the queens, and prominent among 
them is Elizabeth at twelve, sixteen, thirty-six and sixty ; a woman 
who often had her face painted, though it was destitute of beauty, 
and often distorted with passion. " A pale Roman nose," says 



IN ENGLAND. 49 

Torace Walpole, " a head of hair loaded with crowns, and powdered 
with diamonds, a vast ruff, a vaster fardingale, and a bushel of pearls, 
are the features by which everybody knows at once the pictures of 
Queen Elizabeth." If he had said as much as that when Elizabeth 
, lived, he would have lost his head for it. And here, too, are many 
noble men, some of whom were killed on the battle-field, some assas- 
sinated, some poisoned by their wine, — a pastime that seems to be 
becoming somewhat favorite with the ladies in certain parts of the 
world in our day. 

The gardens of Kensington Court are very extensive, and the 
walks are about three miles in extent. In the greenhouse is the 
largest grape-vine in the world, the stem being thirty-five inches in 
circumference ; it bears every year three hundred bunches of grapes. 
In the garden is the famous maze, a piece of shrubbery, and walks so 
intricate, the paths crossing each other, that a person may enter and 
wander about within the area of a single acre for hours, without 
being able to find his way out. This establishment is supported by 
the English government, at an enormous expense, to gratify the royal 
family, who come here once or twice a year, and spend a day or two. 
It is the custom for her Majesty to give here every year a ball, not to 
her nobles and to the ambassadors of other nations, but to her ser- 
vants and dependents. At such times all the restraints and dignity 
of the court are laid aside, and those who a day before or day after- 
ward would not have dared to invite the members of the royal fam- 
ily, are as free and familiar as any of them. The queen at such 
times is accustomed to dance (or was in former years) with the gate- 
keeper, the vine-dresser, or the hostler, who may happen to ask for 
her hand; and the utmost freedom is enjoyed by all parties. 

Another excursion made from London is to Windsor Castle, about 
twenty-two miles from London. This castle was built originally by 
William the Conqueror, and has been enlarged by successive 



5° 



RIP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. 



monarchs until it is one of the most noble fortresses in the world. 
This castle was the favorite residence of Charles I. and Charles II., and 
the aggregate amount of money spent in its erection is $4,500,000. 
From its towers fine views of the country in all directions are ob- 
tained, and within are halls and saloons well worthy of royalty itself 

The queen makes the castle a visit 
very frequently, sometimes spending 
weeks here, which she never does at 
Hampton Court. 




EXETER CATHEDRAL FROM THE NORTH-WEST. 



St. George's Chapel, where the church services are held, is an 
edifice which, for grandeur of architecture and solemnity of effect, 
is seldom equalled. In this structure is the famous cenotaph of the 
Princess Charlotte, one of the most exquisite and magnificent monu- 
mental statues in the world. Following a guide, one passes in 
succession through the chapel; the state apartments; the queen's 
audience-chamber; the Vandyck rooms, filled with fine pictures by 



IN ENGLAND. 



51 



that painter; the queen's drawing-room; the state ante-room; the 
grand vestibule; the Waterloo chamber, filled with portraits of the 
heroes of Waterloo; the grand reception room; the banquet hall; 
the grand church; the queen's presence chamber; and several others 
which I do not remember. This castle is also an expensive royal 
luxury, and is supported by the government, at an enormous cost; 
and yet the people love to have it so. 

The cathedral towns of England are the resorts of strangers from 
all parts of the world, on account of the rare architectural adorn- 
ments. York, Exeter, Lincoln and Chester, with many other places, 
are renowned for their ancient religious structures. The Exeter 
Cathedral is one of the finest of its order of architecture. 

Sheffield. 
Doubtless the Triangle would like to have been with me in my 
wanderings through the manufacturing establishments of this place, 
renowned throughout the world for its fine cutlery. An investigation 
of a day or two was given to these workshops, which at one time 
had no competitors in this extensive branch of industry. You will 
remember, boys, that when you were children, about every piece of 
cutlery that came upon the table at home had stamped into it the 
words, " Rogers, cutlers to His Majesty." The founders of this great 
house have gone the way of all the earth; but the house yet lives, 
and the business is carried on in the old name. It would have been 
an eye-feast for you to have gone through this establishment with 
me, and seen the vast quantities of goods in this line which are on 
exhibition and for sale, from a perfect ten-bladed knife, one-half an 
inch long, to a mammoth pocket knife, with nearly two thousand 
blades. These knives are made to show the perfection of the 
mechanism, and well have the artizans accomplished the feat. One 
knife we saw had one hundred and twenty blades, and in the handle 



5^ 



RIP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. 



was a well-regulated clock. Another had eighteen hundred and fifty- 
eight blades, and one has been added for each year since. Then we were 
shown a knife more delicately made than that, "which was on exhibi- 
tion in New York, at the time of the fair in the Crystal Palace, with 
the most delicate " etchings " on the blades. There were views of 
London Tower, Westminster Abbey, and various buildings and cities 
in the old world; also, views of Albany, Troy, Washington, Phila- 
delphia, and numerous other places in our country. The blades were 
about one foot long, and exquisitely finished. Having remained 
some time in this show-room, which is very extensive, we went into 
the manufactory. There we saw cutlery in the various stages of 
manufacture. Men in one place were forging the blades; there put- 
ting in the springs; there making the handles, boiling the horn, or 
filing the ivory; grinding, polishing, finishing and doing all the 
various parts of the work. The firm employ about one hundred and 
fifty men and boys, and a vast quantity of fine cutlery is turned out. 
To a mechanic a visit to Sheffield must be exceedingly interesting, 
and the few hours we spent amid those blazing foundries and smok- 
ing manufactories will not soon be forgotten. 

From Sheffield we took cars for London; and as we shall be 
nearly six hours on the road, I will pause and give a description of 
the cars and railroad accommodations in the old countries. In some 
things the English railroads are superior to ours, and in some they 
are not. The roads are generally better built, and run above or 
beneath the common roads. Hence there are no disasters from 
crossings, and no cause for a slacking of speed. The number of men 
employed is very large, and all these men are most trustworthy. In our 
country a poor drunken fellow is often employed for switcher or flag- 
man, because he will work cheap. But in England it is not so. 
Human life is held higher there than here, and if an accident occurs, 
the laws are most severe upon the railroad company. The station- 



IN ENGLAND. 



^?, 



houses — the French word de-pot is not used in England; and when 
you ask a man the way to the depots in nine cases out of ten he will 
tell you he does not know, though he may be fireman or baggage- 
master; — the station-houses are much finer and better arranged than 
among us. The depot at Newcastle looks like a palace from a 
distance; its lofty colonnades, its magnificent outer gallery and its 
unique proportions, make it look more like an imperial residence than 
a mart of trade and the storehouse of industry. Within, its arrange- 
ments are perfect. No individual is allowed to cross the tracks. 
Each side of the rails is furnished with everything which can add 
to the convenience and luxur}^ of the traveller: generous dining- 
rooms, equal in splendor to the dining-halls of the St. Nicholas 
Hotel; w^aiting-rooms with fine stuffed chairs and marble-top tables; 
attentive officials ready to answer any question or render any assist- 
ance; bookstalls v^here the traveller can find everything he wants in 
that line, from Jack the Giant-killer to Watts' Hymns, from Eugene 
Sue to the Bible; and every other accommodation which may be 
desired. There is no crowding, no pushing, no yelling hackmen ; but 
the utmost order. No person can ride in the wrong car, blunder as 
much as he will ; for, just before the cars start, the conductor comes 
along and looks at all the tickets, and if any one has taken the wrong 
car, he is set right. 

As to baggage, there are the most excellent arrangements. If 
the traveller enters the depot with his coat upon his arm, his umbrella 
in his hand, and his valise beside him, he can take each of those 
articles to a " Left Baggage Office," and have them checked, and be 
sure to receive them when he wants them ; and a gentleman who has 
travelled in Europe extensively told me that it was impossible to lose 
anything in England, so systematized were all the arrangements. 

The cars are not as good as our own. There are three classes of 
cars. The first class car is generally a short car, with two seats like 



54 K'^P VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. 

a coach, the door in the side, and one seat in front and one behind. 
Each accommodates three or four persons. These cars are elegantly 
fitted, sumptuously stuffed and furnished, and one can sink down into 
them and go to sleep almost as comfortably as if he was at home 
upon his own bed. The cars will accommodate only six or eight 
persons. 

London. 

We are now in the great heart of the British empire, the most 
awful city in the world. Elsewhere we find cathedrals, ruined moss- 
covered abbeys, and memorials of national history, mingled with 
smoky, crowded, manufacturing cities. Here we find the people of 
England. Here we see men. Here we find government, capital, 
influence, architecture, to a wonderful extent. 

We had better go to St. Paul's Cathedral, and obtain a view of 
London from its dome. A stranger going into a large city had better 
at the outset obtain, if possible, from a high point, a bird's-eye view 
of the whole place, and then select objects of interest to visit after- 
ward. St. Paul's is in the heart of London, and for miles the city is 
spread out around it in all directions. The cathedral, as it now stands, 
is a massive structure, designed by Sir Christopher Wren. It is a 
monument worthy of his genius. It was commenced in the year 
1775, but was not entirely finished until about fifty years afterwards. 
Its entire length is five hundred feet, and it is one of the most noble 
buildings ever erected. The poet Montgomery speaks of it as 

■ " The City Queen — this peerless mass 

Of hallowed domes, and grey worn towers sublime." 

The church is built in the form of a cross. The principal front is 
towards the west, and is thus described: "The main entrance is 
adorned with a rich and tasteful portico, the entablature of which 
represents the conversion of St. Paul, sculptured in bass-relief. On 



IN ENGLAND. 55 

the apex of the pediment is a colossal figure of St. Paul, with two of 
equal size at each end, representing St. Peter and St. James; and 
along the summit of the front are similar statues of the four evange- 
lists. The whole rests on an elevated base, the ascent to which is 
formed by twenty-two steps of black marble. The angles are sur- 
mounted by two elegant turrets, of a chaste and uniform character, 
each terminating in a dome ornamented with a huge gilt pineapple." 
Looking off in one direction, is seen the venerable Westminster 
Abbey — the sacred depository of England's honored dead. Within 
these walls the English monarchs are crowned. Here the head of 
Victoria was burdened with the bauble. But it is not the coronation 
splendor that gives renown to this building; but the silent dust that 
is gathered here, and the memorial tablets and monuments that adorn 
the walls and rise on every side. The stranger beholds inscriptions 
that carry him to ever}- epoch of British history, and to every scene 
of British power and glory. He sees them in the sculptured stone, 
and reads them on the wall, remembering at each step the lines of the 
poet Rogers : — 

" Marble monuments are here displayed, 
Thronging the walls ; and on the floor beneath 
Sepulchral stones appear, with emblems graven 
And foot-worn epitaphs ; and some with small 
And shining effigies of brass inlaid." 

The vast cost of this whole structure cannot be counted. The 
whole surface is rich with the wealth of time and art. The chapels 
connected with it, which are numerous, are exquisite in style and 
finish. That of Edward the Confessor, in whose tesselated shrine, 
enclosed in an iron-bound box, the bones yet are, is richly furnished, 
and kings and queens lie buried here. That of Henry VII. adjoins 
the east end of the abbe}?-, and cost one million dollars, though it is 
but one hundred and fifteen feet long and eighty wide. 

The statuary is rich in design and execution, and everywhere 



56 RIP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. 

honored names appear to greet the traveller's eye. Here is Ben 
Jonson, the famous dramatist; and Edmund Spenser, ^vhose "Fairy 
Queene " has not ceased to wield her wand; and tablets to Milton 
and Gray and Chaucer, and a host of other sons of song. Here are 
statesmen and warriors and noble men, whose deeds have been incor- 
porated into the world's lengthened history. Ay, it is a memorable 
day in one's life when he visits this building and reads the names. 
The edifice itself is grand and imposing; but it is not that w^hich 
makes the place awful. It is the associations, the memories, the 
histories that are written on the tombs. 

" Think how many royal bones, 
Sleep within these heaps of stones. 
' Here they lie, had realms and lands, 
Who now want strength to lift their hands. 
Where, from their pulpit sealed with dust, 
They preach, ' In greatness is no trust ! ' 
Here's an acre, sown indeed 
With the richest, royalest seed, ^ 
That the earth did ere suck in. 
Since the first man died for sin." 

I shall never forget how I felt when I first crossed the threshold, 
and stood alone in the centre of this awful pile. I seemed to have 
reached the confines of eternity, and to stand looking off from earth 
upon the vast land of the hereafter. I recollected what Coleridge, 
that great-souled man, said of his visit to the place : " On entering the 
cathedral, I am filled with devotion and awe ; I am lost to the actual- 
ities that surround me, and my whole soul expands into the infinite ; 
earth and air, nature and art, all swell up into eternity; and the only 
sensible impression left is, that I am nothing." 

Near Westminster Abbey, are the new houses of parliament, gor- 
geous structures, worthy of the great English nation. The building 
stands on the site of the old houses of parliament which were built 
in 1834. There are two magnificent rooms, one for the Lords and the 
other for the Commons, these two houses resembling the American 



IN ENGLAND. 



57 



Senate and House of Representatives, with halls and lobbies, porches 
and corridors. 

In another direction is The Tower, founded by William the 
Conqueror. Here are kept the crown jewels of England, the 
crowns, the sacramental service used at coronations, with all the 
insignia of royalty. The Tower has a dark page in English history. 
It was here that Sir Thomas More came to his terrible end, his head 
having been struck off with an axe, while his daughter clung around 
his neck with all the heroism of childlike devotion. Here William 
Wallace vv^as confined after his unfortunate attempt to give liberty to 
Scotland, and from here he was dragged at a horse's tail to Smithfield, 
and barbarously murdered. Here Henry VI. was assassinated — the 
object of foul conspiracies, the victim of unsatisfiable ambition. 
Here the young princes were smothered by the order of Richard III., 
in all the helplessness of childhood; and here the murderer after- 
wards met the fate he so richly deserved. Here Bishop Fisher was 
executed, to satisfy the malignity of a wicked monarch whose foolish 
pretensions he refused to acknowledge. Here Anne Boleyn met her 
fate, protesting that her only crime was in having lost the love of her 
husband, who, three days after her head was struck off, led the 
beautiful Jane Seymour to the unhallowed altar. Here the Countess 
of Salisbury, accused of treason, ran around the fatal block, the 
executioner striking at her head at every step, until she fell covered 
with wounds. Here Lady Jane Grey, the victim of the weak ambi- 
tion of her friends, having suffered herself to be crowned, was 
confined, tried, and executed. Here Arabella Stuart was confined, 
until, her health departed, her reason fled, and covered with disease, 
she died a lunatic. Here the gifted Earl of Strafford was confined 
and put to death under the eye of Cromwell, soon followed to the 
block by Laud, the corrupt ecclesiastic and unprincipled statesman. 
Time will not allow me to dwell upon the scenes of horror which 
have here been witnessed. 



58 RIP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. 

In another direction is the British Museum, where the Triangle, if 
here, could stay a year, and not examine all that is treasured within its 
walls. In the ample spaces are collections of birds, from the tiny 
humming-bird to the bald eagle, from the goldfinch to the peacock; 
animals from the mouse to the elephant, the walrus, and the masto- 
don; human skeletons embedded in limestone; Egyptian remains in 
vast variety; mummies, some as they were brought from the land 
of mythology, others partly unrolled, and others entirely exposed. 
Every age and clime have sent contributions to this great collection, 
and here, daily, antiquarians, artists, and scholars come to study out 
the mysterious lines which are written on every feature of the past. 
The library connected with the Museum is the largest in the world. 
It contains more than one million volumes, ten thousand maps, thirty 
thousand manuscripts, and a great variety of seals, parchments, and 
papers. A large part of it was given to the British nation by George 
IV., and is well selected, possessing great value, independent of the 
number of volumes. Here are the original manuscripts of Tasso, Pope's 
Iliad, the works of rare Ben Jonson ; also letters written by Napoleon, 
Catharine de' Medici, Peter the Great, Nelson, Mary, Queen of Scots, 
the various Kings of France, Washington, Bacon, Locke, Newton, 
Dryden, Addison, Franklin, Voltaire, Erasmus, Luther, Knox, Calvin, 
Cranmer, Latimer, Melancthon, Wolse}', Leibnitz, and others. One 
feels, as he gazes upon the autographs of great men, who have moved 
the world, some by the sword, and some b}^ the tongue, and some by 
the pen, that he is communing with the buried past. His mind is 
borne back to other days, and he sweeps with Napoleon over the field 
of blood; shouts with Cromwell, "God and religion," as he rushes to 
the charge; stands with Luther before the Diet, and pleads nobly for the 
great rights of conscience; or sits down and gazes over the shoulder of 
Calvin as he composes the Institutes in his cheerless stud}^ in Geneva. 

But I must not take more time in speaking of London. It is a city 
where one could stay for years and be finding something new all the 



IN ENGLAND. 



59 



time. Its churches, halls, streets, parks, all add interest or charms to 
the place, of which I shall have much to tell you when I return. 
Wherever I go I do not expect to find any city like " London — 
opulent, enlarged, and still increasing London." 

Birmingham. 
This is a great town of more than three hundred thousand inhabi- 
tants, distinguished for its extensive manufactories, its fine buildings, 




TOWN HALL, BIRMINGHAM. 



and its thriving industries. The -pa-pier inache manufacturing, the 
electro-plate working, the steel-pen manufacturing, glass works, brass 
works, and iron works abound. Gillott's extensive steel-pen estab- 
lishment is here. 

The town hall is one of the most spacious rooms in England. It 
is built from the model of an ancient Grecian temple. It stands upon 



IN ENGLAND. 6 1 

a rough, coarse basement, on which rise beautiful marble columns, 
each weighing twenty-six tons, and being thirty-six feet high, forming 
one of the most beautiful exteriors seen in England. The hall is one 
hundred and forty-five feet long, sixty-five broad, and sixty-five high, 
making six hundred thousand cubic feet, and is capable of seating 
nearly five thousand persons, and standing an indefinite number of 
others. 

In this hall is an immense organ, which is thus described by an 
inhabitant of Birmingham: " The organ case is forty feet wide, forty- 
five feet high, and seventeen feet deep. The largest wood pipe 
measures, in the interior, two hundred and twenty-four cubic feet. 
The bellows of the organ contains three hundred square feet of sur- 
face, and upwards of three tons' w^eight upon the bellows are required 
to give the necessary pressure. It is calcula|™ that the trackers in 
the organ, if laid out in a straight line, would^Wach above five miles. 
There are seventy-eight draw-stops, four sets of keys, and above four 
thousand pipes. The w^eight of the instrument is about forty tons; it 
cost about four thousand pounds, and in the depth, power, variety, and 
sweetness of its tone, far surpasses any in Europe." This latter as- 
sertion is a matter of doubt, inasmuch as there are one or two others 
equal, if not superior, to this. 

From the hall I found my way to the grammar-school founded by 
Edward VI., in 1552. The building used by this school is a fine 
Gothic edifice, of very elaborate design, quadrangular in form, with a 
front one hundred and seventy-four feet long, and was erected at a 
cost of about forty thousand pounds. The school is divided into two 
departments, one for the study of the English branches, and the other 
for the classics. The school was founded, and originally supported, by 
the income of a piece of land amounting to but thirty-one pounds. 
In consequence of improvements being made on and around it, the 
income has now increased to seven thousand pounds. About five 
hundred boys are here educated, without expense to their parents, by 



62 



RIP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. 



one principal and twelve or fifteen assistants. The principal received 
us with much courtes}^, and conducted us through the various apart- 
ments. His salary is four hundred pounds. This school forms a 
most noble charity, and is one of the ornaments of that great city. 
There are four other schools, which, in a city of about two hundred 
and twenty thousand inhabitants, give instruction to about one thou- 




COVENTRY — THE SPIRES OF TRINITY, ST. MICHAEL'S AND CHRIST CHURCH. 



sand children, on the same foundation. I mig#t take up more space 
in speaking of what Ave saw in Birmingham, but perhaps I have said 
enough to stimulate your curiosity. The city is quite attractive. 

Nor does the stranger find the country surrounding Birmingham 
to be destitute of interest. Out at a little distance is Coventry, and 
the old ruins of Kenilworth Castle, and Warwick Castle and town, in 



IN ENGLAND. ^2, 

which still remain the evidences of former greatness — the halls where 
kings and queens revelled in luxury. Still beyond is Stratford-on- 
Avon, the birthplace of William Shakespeare, with the old house in 
which he was born still standing. Still farther off is Dudley Castle, 
memorable in the history of the past, and living with the associations 
which link the past to the present and the future. Indeed, every inch 




EXETER CATHEDRAL — THE WEST FRONT. 

of ground in this vicinity is historic; every cliff, and hill, and vale 
bring to mind some scene of glory or shame of which poets have 
sung, or over which orators have grown eloquent. 

Exeter. 

I should like to have taken you with me to Exeter. To a person 
accustomed to the modern cities of the United States, a place like 
Exeter seems to be very ancient. A half century ago several of our 



64 



RIP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. 



most enterprising cities, such as Chicago, San Francisco, Milwaukee, 
and Denver, had no name on the map of our country. Boston, that 
at home seems so venerable, goes back but a little more than two 
hundred years. But here is a city that loses itself in the mists of 
the early ages. It is declared to have been a walled city before the 




GATEWAY, JESUS COLLEGE. 

advent of our Lord. How much back of that it ^oes no one can 
tell. The chief architectural feature of the city is its cathedral. Cen- 
turies of time have been beating upon it. It dates as far back as 1186. 
It is a monster in size, and a model in execution. I hope this brief 
allusion to it, and the view presented will lead you to obtain and read 



66 



RIP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. 



that valuable and interesting volume, entitled the "Handbook of 
English Cathedrals." 

We are struck everywhere with the evident antiquity. Cam- 
bridge and Oxford are the university cities of England, and in visits 
to them you would of course suppose that an old pedagogue like 
myself Avould take much interest; and many days I gave to those 
renowned places. The men who have gone out from those halls 
have stirred the world, controlled its destinies, and, under God, have 
moulded its future. At some time you will cross the ocean, and 
stand where I have stood, and muse on what I have mused, while 
spread out around you will be the classic treasuries of the kingdom. 




ELSTOW CHURCH. 



Another class of towns and cities I have visited, representing not 
the literature nor the industry of the nation, but its religion and phi- 
lanthropy. Bristol is renowned as the theatre where Robert Hall 
won his laurels as the greatest preacher of his times, and where are 
the Faith Asylum Homes which are miracles of Christian love and 
labor. Bedford brings up the name and history of John Bunyan, the 
converted tinker, who, becoming a Baptist preacher, drew upon 
himself the persecution of his enemies, which resulted in his imprison- 
ment. And this imprisonment gave to the world that wonderful 



IN ENGLAND. 



book " The Pilgrim's Progress," which, next to the Bible, has done its 
work in guiding men to the celestial city. The history of John Bun- 
yan, like the history of Joseph in Egypt, and that of St. John upon 
the isle of Patmos, is a striking illustration of that overruling Provi- 
dence that marks out the paths of men, and 
directs the ways of this v^orld to work the 
plans of Him who guides and governs all 
worlds. A statue of the prince of divines 
has recently been erected in Bedford. It 
represents Bunyan in the costume of his 
time, and is supposed to be faithful to the 
original. 

Before I leave England I know you will 
want ine to speak of the queen and the 
royal family, and will want me to give you 
my ideas of the nobility and gentry. In our 
country, where the poor mechanic believes 
himself to be as noble a man as the heir of 
wealth and fortune, in a country where all 
the avenues to wealth and greatness are 
open to the humblest citizen; where a 
bobbin-boy may be elected as the governor 
of a sovereign commonwealth, and a cob- 
bler shine in the Federal Senate, among 
the sons of princely fortunes, and the 
graduates of highly endowed universities, 

we can hardly understand the earth-wide and sea-deep distinctions 
which exist between the nobility and the common people, on the 
other side of the ocean. The most sensible people pander to the 
foolish caste of birth and blood, and allow themselves to do homage 
to a man because he has titles, M^on in some cause of infamy, per- 
haps, by his dead sires, appended to his name. Nor can we under- 




STATUE OF BUNYAN. 



68 RIP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. 

stand how beggared lords and dissipated dukes put on airs when they 
met their less-favored fellow-creatures. In England the posts of 
honor, the high positions in the state and in the army, are generally, 
though not exclusively, occupied by the sons of the nobility; and this 
nobility is sometimes overbearing and dissipated. 

The trouble grows out of the very structure of the government, 
and the blood of aristocracy runs from the queen on the throne, 
down through the meanest official that waits at her gates. In Eng- 
land, under a system of constitutional monarchy, the queen is only 
the representative of power, not the power itself The Czar of Rus- 
sia has power; the Emperor of Germany has power; in England the 
queen has but little. She cannot make a single law, and in the 
hands of her ministers and parliament is often a mere cipher. 
When the queen dies the Prince of Wales, who is now about forty 
years of age, having been born Nov. 9, 1841, will take the throne. But 
the government will go on just as well then in the hands of the son, 
as now under the excellent good-judgment of his mother. It seems 
strange how any people can be willing to be taxed so heavily to sup- 
port a royal family — taxed on tea and coffee, on bread and butter, on 
paper and ink, on books and maps, on fire-wood and window-glass, to 
maintain the state of a family which, if it had been left to the election 
of the people, might never have been called to the throne. It must 
seem strange to the people to see such expenditures on one family, 
such homage to one woman, who, notwithstanding her virtues, is not 
superior to many of her countr}^ women. You may, perhaps, have read, 
a few years ago, that the queen went upon a royal visit to Leeds, on the 
occasion of the opening of a large music hall. The mayor expended 
some fifteen thousand pounds, or seventy-five thousand dollars, to 
entertain his royal guest; but the lady mayoress not having been from 
the ranks of the nobility — the mayor in his marriage having consulted 
the impulses of his own noble heart, rather than the imperious laws of 
custom — her Majesty refused to speak with her, or notice her in any 



IN ENGLAND. . 69 

way whatever. The people of Leeds were indignant, and the public 
press did not hesitate to speak out the sentiments of the masses. The 
queen, perhaps convinced of her wrong, and solicitous for her stand- 
ing in the eyes of the nation, sent the lady mayoress a golden bracelet, 
which the lady accepted as a sufficient apology. An American lady 
would have sent the bracelet back with becoming indignation. 

And this reference to the queen leads me to speak of the palaces 
of England — the abodes of royalty. The town house of the queen 
is Buckingham Palace, a large and magnificent house built in the Mul- 
berry Gardens by John Sheffield, Duke of Buckingham, from whom 
it derives its name. The present building has cost an immense sura 
of money, and constant changes are being made in it. Exter- 
nally it is not an imposing structure, but within it is said to be a gor- 
geous abode. The state apartments, consisting of chamber, drawing- 
rooms, throne-room, and council-chamber, are shown when the queen 
is absent. As the best method of giving you an idea of the magnifi- 
cence of royalty, I quote a description of the state rooms, as I find 
them particularized by another: — 

"The Entrance Hall, though low, is truly magnificent; it is paved 
with variegated marble, bordered with a scroll of Sienna, centred 
with puce-colored rosettes; the walls are of scagliola, and the ceiling 
is supported by forty-four white marble columns with Corinthian cap- 
itals of Mosaic gold. Behind the hall is the sculpture gallery, ex- 
tending the whole length of this portion of the palace, on each side 
of which are ranged busts of members of the royal family, and emi- 
nent deceased statesmen. The sides of the gallery are ornamented 
with thirty-two columns, similar to those in the Entrance Hall. In the 
centre is the door opening into the libraries, three handsome rooms, 
looking into the gardens; on the right is the staircase leading to the 
queen's private apartments; and on the left are the queen's study, and 
rooms for secretaries. On the left of the Entrance Hall is the grand 
staircase, recently decorated by Louis Griiner, the steps of which are 



70 



RIP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. 



of white marble, and the railings of mahogany and Mosaic gold, lead- 
ing to the state apartments, which are in the following order: — 

"The Green Drawing Room, forty-eight feet by thirty-five, is 
himg with rich damask drapery, with bullion fringe, divided by gilt 
pilasters. It contains portraits of the house of Hanover, and two 
valuable cabinets. Here every possible variety of green — from the 
deepest tint of that color, displayed in the striped satin by which the 
walls are lined and the gorgeous furniture covered — leads the eye up 
to the yellow of the gilt-work, by which the room is profusely orna- 
mented. 

" The Throne Room, sixty-five feet by thirty-five, is richly gilt, and 
hung with crimson silk, beautifully blended with an excess of richly 
gilt ornament; the ceiling is magnificently embossed, and the frieze 
contains bassi-relievi, by Baily, after designs by Stothard, representing 
the wars of York and Lancaster. In an alcove at the end of the 
apartment, formed by two wall pillars is the imperial throne, sur- 
mounted by a wreath, borne by winged figures, to which are attached 
a medallion, exhibiting the royal initials. In this apartment the meet- 
ings of the privy council are held. 

" The Picture Gallery is one hundred and sixty-four feet by twenty- 
eight; and is lighted by three parallel ranges of sky-lights, decorated 
with tracery and eastern pendants, having a pleasing appearance; 
over the mantel-pieces are carved heads of the great masters of 
antiquity; and the floor is of panelled oak. The collection of pictures 
formed b}^ George IV., consist principally of choice works of the 
Dutch and Flemish schools, a few valuable Italian paintings, and seve- 
ral meritorious pictures by modern English artists. 

" The Yellow Drawing Room is forty-eight feet by thirty-five, and 
the most magnificent room in the palace; the whole of the furniture 
being elaborately carved, overlaid with dead and burnished gold, and 
covered with broad striped yellow satin. Against the walls are placed 
several highly-polished syenite marble pillars, which are matched in 



IN ENGLAND. 7 1 

color by the carpet, subduing the effect of the masses of yellow. In 
each panel is painted a full-length portrait of some member of the 
royal family. There are also twelve bass-reliefs by the late William 
Pitts, representing the origin and progress of pleasure. 

" The Saloon, which is in the centre of the garden front, is thirty- 
two feet by fifty-two. Here the decoration is particularly sumptuous; 
the shafts of the Corinthian columns and pilasters being of purple 
scagliola, in imitation of lapis lazuli; the entablature, cornice, and 
ceiling, profusely enriched; and all the other decorations and furni- 
ture, of corresponding magnificence. In this apartment are three 
friezes, also by Pitts, representing eloquence, pleasure, and harmony. 

" The South Drawing Room is sixty-eight feet by thirty-five, en- 
riched by columns of crimson scagliola, and three compositions in re- 
lief, by Pitts, being the apotheosis of Spenser, Shakespeare, and Milton. 

" The last of the state rooms is the Dining Room, sixty-eight feet 
by thirty-five, which is a very spacious and handsome apartment, 
lighted by windows on one side only, opening into the garden, the 
spaces between which are filled with immense mirrors. The chief 
entrances are at the north end of the room; one opening from the ball- 
room, the other from the picture gallery, a fire-place, with an elegant 
looking-glass over it, dividing them. At the southern end is a deep 
recess, the extremity of which is nearly filled by a large looking-glass, 
in front of which, during state balls or dinners, the buffet of gold plate 
is arranged, producing a most magnificent effect. The ceiling is en- 
riched with elaborately moulded foliage and floral ornaments. At the 
eastern side are portraits of former members of the royal family, and 
Sir T. Lawrence's celebrated portrait of George IV., in his coronation 
robes, formerly in the Presence Chamber, at St. James's. 

" On the south side of the garden front is the private chapel, con- 
secrated March 25, 1843, by the Archbishop of Canterbury. The 
pillars of this building formed a portion of the screen of Carlton 
Palace. 



72 RIP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. 

" In the garden is the queen's summer-house, adorned with fres- 
cos, illustrating Milton's Comus, by Eastlake, Maclise, Landseer, Dyce, 
Stanfield, Uwins, Leslie, and Ross; the poverty-stricken ornaments 
and border of which are by Louis Griiner." 

This is a description of the state apartments. The private apart- 
ments of the royal family, which are almost numberless, are finished 
in a style of equal taste and splendor, all paid for by a people who, 
though beggared by taxes, throw up their arms, shouting, " God save 
the Qiieen !" 

St. James's Palace, in Pall Mall, was the former residence of the 
royal family from 1697 to the accession of the present queen. It is 
now used mostly for the public parties and balls, for the queen's levees, 
and other similar purposes. Its external appearance is more like an 
almshouse than a palace, and within, its halls are gloomy and for- 
bidding. 

Marlborough House is the palace of the Prince of Wales, and until 
he comes to the throne, this will be his town residence, his city palace. 
It is in this house that the celebrated Turner collection of portraits 
was at one time placed, but they have since been removed to the 
National Gallery. Turner was the son of a barber, but his genius 
raised him above that condition, and he became an eminent painter. 
He left, at his death, a large fortune to be expended in founding 
asylums for unfortunate artists. He also bequeathed his collection 
of paintings, valued very highly, to the British nation. I have no 
time to dwell on any of these paintings, and a description might 
be of no interest to you. In the stable of this palace we saw the 
funeral car on which the Duke of Wellington was carried to the 
tomb. 

I turn suddenly from royalty to the other extreme of London life. 
Indeed, one suggests the other, by way of contrast. I refer to the 
Ragged Schools of the city, a form of charity of which we can hardl}'' 
speak too highly. They are unlike any schools we have in America, 



IN ENGLAND. 73 

either on week days or Sunday. They are generally located in the 
vilest, and most loathsome parts of the city, among thieves and drunk- 
ards. One was established a short time ago in a thieves' lodging-house, 
called " The One Ton," a building well known to certain classes of 
people in the city. Like the " Old Brewery," in New York, it was 
turned into a mansion-house and a school established there, with four 
hundred scholars. The Field Lane school reformed the whole neigh- 
borhood, and changed that abode of theft and degradation into a very 
respectable locality. The Blue Gate school also has done a great 
work in alleviating- the wants and miseries of the wretched children 
in the east part of London. Nor is the good accom.plished among the 
children only. One scholar in the Field Lane school told his teacher 
that he had been in prison many times for all kinds of crimes except- 
ing murder, and that, on shipboard, he had been guilty of, but had 
never been brought to justice. I saw in this school a little lad, of 
whom the following statement, as taken from his lips, is recorded. 
The day I saw him he was about fourteen years old. 

" I was passing the school on one occasion, and saw a lot of ragged 
boys going up to the school, and thought I would just go too. I have 
been in prison nineteen times; for stealing pencil-cases, box of cigars, 
gentleman's silver watch ; for tossing pennies on Sunday ; for stealing a 
lady's lever watch; for taking a coat out of a shop; for being in a house 
of ill-fame, where I assisted in stealing from a man, when he was asleep, 
his coat, trousers, and vest; for stealing a waist out of a shop, also a 
coat; for stealing harness off two horses; for stealing coat and trou- 
sers. I was taken up on suspicion of having taken them, but as no 
direct evidence could be brought against me, I was discharged. Since 
I have been out of prison, I have been stealing when I could; and I 
was planning a robbery when I met with the school." 

One of the teachers of the Blue Gate school, in giving his report to 
the school, described a tramp that he had made through the more desti- 
tute parts of London, a few evenings before. He was in search of 



74 I^IP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. 

objects of charity. He first found a young man asleep. He was a 
man of color, and about twenty-six years of age. Being aroused from 
his slumbers, the poor fellow stated in reply to questions put, that he 
was a native of North America, a seaman by profession; he had come 
over in a vessel named the Macedonia; he had been paid off, but had 
foolishly spent all his money, and being penniless, and unable to get 
another ship, had taken to begging. He further stated that he had 
had but a very small quantity of food the previous day; but he did 
not so much mind that as having no shelter, nor place in which to lie 
down. 

" Near the principal entrance of the London docks, about half-past 
one o'clock, I searched amongst some brick rubbish, which is gener- 
ally deposited there, some sixty feet from the road. I climbed over 
the fence, and by the aid of my lamp discovered three human heads, 
just above the debris, the heads only being visible. I found them to 
be three boys, they having for warmth's sake literally buried their bodies, 
covering themselves over with old castaway mats, and heaped the 
rubbish upon them. The rain was then coming down fast. One was 
but fourteen 3^ears of age, named J. F.; he v^as without father or 
mother, and got his living, such as it was, by hanging about Billings- 
gate or Leadenhall Markets, and carrying parcels or goods. On 
market-days he might earn enough to pay for food and lodging, but 
on other days he never got enough for both, so he slept where he 
could. He declared he had only earned twopence-halfpenny the day 
before, with which he had bought two penny loaves which, with a 
drink of water, was his food for that day. The second was thirteen 
years of age, named J. K. He, too, was without father or mother, and 
lived by picking up rags and bones in the street; had picked up five 
farthings' worth the day before; and had not a friend in the world. 
The third was about twenty years of age. He had been parentless 
some time, and was a native of St. George's, and had resorted to beg- 
ging and thieving for a living." 



IN ENGLAND. 75 

Next, he found a sailor, without money, asleep on the pavement. 
He had been drugged and robbed. Next, he found several men and 
women ranged along on the sidewalk of an alley, all asleep. Then, 
a little boy of ten years, who was nestled in against the wall of a 
sugar-house, which wall was warm and kept him from being chilled. 
Fifteen other similar cases he found that one night, all pitiable and 
distressing. Indeed, in London, in some of the viler and more 
degraded places, it is not uncommon, late at night, to see women 
sleeping on the ground, under the fences, or on the doorsteps of the 
houses; and it is this class that these ragged schools are designed to 
reach and bless. 

We have now seen somewhat of London — its palaces, and its 
people. For want of time I have hurried over many things, and 
omitted others entirely. A man, to do any justice to London, either 
to its greatness, or to its vices and corruptions, must give a large vol- 
ume, or a whole series of letters, to the subject. 

England is a wonderful country, whether we consider its history, 
its people, or its influence upon the world, and especially is this so 
to an American, who regards it as " fatherland." 

Rip Van Winkle. 



76 



RIP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. 



IN FRANCE. 




PALACE OF THE TROCADERO. 



What boy or girl old enough to read history, or become 
acquainted with the nations of the earth, who has not longed to see 
the city of Paris! There is a delightfulness about it that makes it 
the capital of gayety and fashion, — the headquarters of beauty and 
pleasure. 

"Paris is France! " It cannot be said that New York or Wash- 



IN FRANCE. 77 

ington is the United States, that London is England, or that St. 
Petersburg is Russia j but it can be said that " Paris is France." 
Paris is at once the head and heart of the whole country. Whatever 
is started in Paris is caught up all over the great country. It is 
not so in other lands. The capital plays a less conspicuous part, and 
has less to do with the districts beyond its own limits. New York 
looks down on Washington, Edinburgh on one side and Birming- 
ham on the other snap their fingers at London, but Paris rules and 
sways the whole land. Its headship is acknowledged. And then 
Paris has a charm for young Americans. There is no country they 
like so well to read about or to visit as France j none that has for 
them so much delight as that gay and brilliant people, associated so 
intimately with fashion and folly as well as taste and heroism. So 
when the old traveller reached Paris he knew just what things to write 
about in his letters to the young friends at home. And when the 
letter came, the Club was more than usually anxious to invite in the 
older admirers of Master Van Wert. And this is what he says about 

France. 

Paris. 

The first question I asked m3^self on reaching this city was, 
"Where shall I stop?" I find that the cost of living here is much 
greater than at any former time. But the question soon answered 
itself, and I was a guest at Hotel Meurice, on the famous Rue de Ri- 
voli. "I shall not starve here," I said to myself as one of the "bread 
venders " came into the court, laden with her daily supply. She 
was an interesting-looking girl of about twenty-five years of age. 
She seemed to have a whole baker's-shop on her person, the long 
loaves rising far above her head, as you will see in the little sketch 
which I send you. 

And now we will go about the city. The streets are wide and 
clean. The Boulevards form very noble highways all around the 
city, and with them the most spacious streets of London bear no 



78 RIP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. 

comparison. What the parks are to London, the pubhc squares or 
"places," as they are called, which are generally ornamented with 
fountains or columns, are to Paris. Of the " places " and columns, 
there are several of much interest. The Place Vendome is an 
octagonal space in which is the triumphal pillar erected by Napo- 
leon to commemorate his German victories. The shaft is of stone, 
and covered with bronze bass-reliefs formed entirely of cannon taken 
in the battles of the conqueror. The bass-reliefs are spiral, and dis- 
play the most noted events in the German campaigns. On the sum- 
mit stands the bronze figure of Napoleon himself, who is looking out 
from his dizzy elevation upon the passing multitudes below. It is an 
imitation of the Trajan pillar at Rome, and surpasses it in grandeur, 
and in the heroism of the deeds which it commemorates. 

In front of the Tuileries is the Place de la Concorde, ornamented 
with beautiful fountains which play ceaselessly, and in the centre of 
which rises the Luxor Obelisk, an Egyptian shaft, at least three thou- 
sand years old, and which is covered with unread Egyptian charac- 
ters. It was brought from Egypt during the reign of Louis Philippe. 
On the base are engravings and diagrams of the machine by which it 
was raised to its present elevation. It is said that the engineer who 
had charge of the work felt the most extreme solicitude as to his suc- 
cess; and as thousands gathered to see the obelisk rise to its position, 
he moved among them with a charged pistol protruding from his vest, 
with which he had determined to commit suicide, if, by any accident, 
he should fail in his attempt. The obelisk stands where the guil- 
lotine stood in the time of the Revolution, and where the wretched 
Louis XVI. and Marie Antoinette, and their unfortunate friends, met 
a dreadful fate. 

One of the best views of Paris is obtained from the beautiful cem- 
eter}^, Pere la Chaise. It was named for one who lived on the spot 
in the time of Louis XVI. The cemetery contains one hundred 
acres, and was laid out near the beginning of the present centur}^ It 




PARIS BREAD CARRIER. 



8o RIP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. 

was the first cemeter}^ of the kind ever planned; and our beautiful 
Mt. Auburn, Forest Hills, Laurel Hill, and Greenwood are imitations 
of this. The ground is on an elevation which overlooks the city, and 
from its walks the edifices of the metropolis are all seen. The chief 
feature of the place is the numberless chapels, similar to some found 
at Greenwood, erected in the highest style of art. Here, in this cem- 
etery, lie Abelard and Heloise, beneath a most beautiful group of 
marble statuary. The story of Abelard, his unfortunate love for the 
maiden, whom he should not have sought; the secret marriage; the 
subsequent persecutions, and the abandonment of both Abelard and 
Heloise to the degrading life of the convent, are matters of history. 
Our guide, a clever old fellow, about sixty years of age, told us that 
no one ever knew how to love until he read the correspondence of 
these two lovers. 

Here lies Labedoyere, whose fate forms so dark a page in the 
records of French history, and whose only crime, says one, " was 
loyalty and faith sublime." 

Here lies Marshal Ney, whom Napoleon so greatly and sadly 
wronged. 

The grounds are filled with monumental chapels. A description 
of one of them will give a general idea of the whole. The one which 
I sketched was of soft sandstone, Corinthian architecture, seven feet 
long and four feet wide. A man could stand upright in it. The 
walls were thin, and the door of iron trellised-work, through which 
the interior could be seen. It was furnished with a chair, a prayer- 
book, several pots of geraniums, a vase of natural flowers, a kneeling 
statue, a silver crucifix, a miniature daguerreot3^pe, a mourning pic- 
ture, and some twenty-five wreaths of artificial flowers. A little table, 
on which some of these things stood, was covered with white muslin, 
and the floor neatly spread with painted carpet. In the rear, behind 
the altar or table, was a small stained-glass window; and the whole 
structure was neat and beautiful. The cemetery, with its hundred 



IN FRANCE. 




OLD PARIS. 



acres, is filled up with chapels and monuments, beneath which sleep 
in death many who were once loved and honored in life. 

Another fine view of the city is obtained from the Triumphal 
Arch, which is situated on high ground, commanding a wide prospect 
of the city and the surrounding country. It was begun by Napoleon, 
and stands as an imperishable monument of his genius. It was com- 



82 RIP VAN WINKLE 'S TRA VELS. 

pleted in 1836, and is one of the remarkable monuments of this city 
of monuments. It is like other works which originated in the brain 
of that wonderful " man of destiny." It was erected at a cost of 
upwards of ten millions of francs. One can spend hours on this high 
arch, looking over upon the beautiful city. No red tile roofs, no 
clouds of smoke, no dingy buildings are seen; but the bright, lively 
scenery of the French metropolis. The Champs Elysees thronged 
with people; the Place de la Concorde, with the churches, spires, 
domes and pillars of commemoration are all in view. The structure 
consists of a grand central arch, ninety feet high and forty-five feet 
wide, through which passes a traverse arch, scarcely less bold and 
magnificent in its proportions. The monument rises to a height of 
one hundred and fifty-two feet, and sinks its solid stone foundation 
twenty-five feet below the surface of the ground. The piers and 
entablature are richly ornamented with carved stone-work, and form 
one of the most magnificent triumphal arches in the world. The 
ascent is made by a flight of two hundred and sixty-one steps; 
and when, at the expense of weary limbs, the top is reached, one of 
the finest prospects conceivable bursts upon the sight. 

One of the most conspicuous objects in Paris is the Church of 
Notre Dame, which stands on the site of an ancient Roman temple, 
and has resisted the assault of nearly ten centuries. It is one of the 
finest specimens of architectural taste I ever saw; but for the great 
purpose of worship, it is almost completely useless. Two towers 
surmount the structure, from which a fine view of Paris is obtained, 
in one of which is an enormous bell, weighing thirty-two thousand 
pounds, which sends out its iron tone like the voice of a giant. Decay 
and neglect are written all around, and the fine edifice gives many evi- 
dences of the ruthless assaults of civil war. 

Many times I went into this venerable church. There is something 
which draws the traveller to it. One has an irresistible feeling of 
religious veneration as he stands beneath the arches of such a struc- 



IN FRANCE. 



83 




CATHEDRAL OF NOTRE DAME. 

ture, where far above him the birds have built their nests, and the 
swallows are flying about with a mournful sound. In the chapels all 
around the church are paintings and statues, to commemorate distin- 
guished events and personages. We were pointed to the spot on 
which Napoleon stood when he was married to Josephine by Pope 



84 ^IP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS, 

Pius VIL Here, too, was the spot where he placed the ro3^al crown 
on his own head, and that of his imperial consort. What changes 
have befallen the Bonaparte family, and the imperial line since 
then. Little did the great Emperor dream of Elba and St. Helena; 
of Moscow and Waterloo. France has hardly had a peaceful hour 
since then. It has been revolution, bloodshed, overthrow and violent 
change. Whether this fickle, volatile people will ever go back from 
republicanism to monarch}^ no one can tell. They have tried all 
forms of government, and do not seem yet to be in a settled condition. 

The Pantheon is a monumental home of the dead. Beneath it are 
vaults, in which is deposited the dust of some of the most noted 
men of France. The remains of Rousseau and Voltaire are here, 
— their mischief all done, and their specious errors all exploded. 
The famous Marat was entombed here; but the hand of revolution 
dug up his bones, which were thrown into a common sewer; and thus 
disappeared all that death left of a man whose name carried terror to 
a trembling nation. From the dome an extensive view of the city is 
obtained. 

Of another style of architecture, unlike Notre Dame, or the Pan- 
theon, is the Cathedral of St. Denis. It was once the Westminster 
Abbey of Paris, and in its vaults the French monarchs found their 
royal resting-place. 

One of the most conspicuous buildings in Paris is the Hotel des 
Invalides, where are quartered the poor and infirm soldiers who 
deserve well of their country. There, beneath the dome, was placed 
the dust of the Great Emperor, when it was brought back from St. 
Helena. The Hotel was founded by Louis XIV., and is an architec- 
tural ornament and a practical charity. 

Among the notable churches of modern date is the Madeleine, a 
costly and elegant structure, near the western termination of the Boule- 
vards. It was commenced in 1796, and finished and dedicated dur- 
ing the reign of the last king. It is built in the Grecian style of 




CATHEDRAL OF ST. DENIS. 



86 RIP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. 

architecture, and cost the immense sum of thirteen million and 
seventy-nine thousand francs, or more than two million six hundred 
thousand dollars. It is three hundred and twenty-eight feet long, and 
one hundred and thirty-eight feet wide. It is surrounded by Corinthian 
pillars about fifty feet high. 

While the Catholic religion prevails in Paris the Protestants have 
several churches, the American chapel being well known and much 
attended by our countrymen. The Wesleyans, the Baptists, and several 
other Christian denominations have congregations which are more or 
less flourishing. The Religious Tract Society has a depot where all 
the books of that and similar societies can be found, no hindrance 
being put upon the circulation of Protestant books. 

The houses of Paris have a clean and inviting appearance. The 
light stone, of which so man}^ are built, gives them an airy, pleasant 
aspect in wide contrast with the dingy brick of London. A visitor 
does not find so many dilapidated houses, or houses dating back to 
another age, as he might suppose he would. Paris has a modern look. 
There are structures that speak of great age; but the}/^ are not so 
numerous here as in other parts of France. In Lyons, Rouen, Valen- 
ciennes, old houses, halls and churches convey the traveller back to 
other ages and former days, in spite of himself. 

In walking through Rue de Rivoli, the tall tower of St. Jacques 
meets the eye, a picturesque and striking monument of other days, 
intensely interesting to me, though not often mentioned by travellers. 

The palaces of France have, with the departure of royalty, lost 
their former glory. A huge edifice, once the home of a king, but 
now the resort of artists, laborers, curiosity-seekers, poorly kept and 
much neglected, is a melancholy place. The Palais Royal, the early 
home of Louis XIV., built by Cardinal Richelieu and presented to 
the young monarch, is much neglected. The author of " Crests from 
the Ocean World " describes it as he saw it while it was the abode 
of Louis Philippe, into whose hands it came by inheritance: "A beau- 




HOTEL DES INVALIDES. 



88 



RIP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. 



tiful stairway to the first story, which is divided into three apartments, 
namely: those of the centre, occupied by the king and queen before 
1830; the apartments of the left, appropriated to Madame Adelaide, 
the sister of the king; those of the right, destined for the prince royal. 
The left wing comprises a vast dining-room, several grand saloons, 
and beautiful cabinets. The centre includes the saloon for the aids- 




OLD HOUSES, VALENCIENNES. 



de-camp, that of reception, the cabinet of the king, the apartment of 
the queen, and the hall of the throne. A magnificent galler}^, leading 
to the apartment of the late Duke of Orleans, occupies a part of the 
left wing. The library, situated on the same side, is placed partly in 
the entresol and partly in the first story. The walls of the several 
apartments were adorned with paintings, some of them possessing 
rare merit. Among the historical pieces were, Julius Caesar going to 



90 



RIP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. 



1 



the Senate, The Victory of Marathon, William Tell jumping out of 
the Boat with Gesler, and several more modern scenes in which Maria 
Theresa of Austria figures conspicuously. She is represented in 
attitudes expressive of strong emotion and intense energy. There 
are, besides, several portraits of distinguished personages* among 
them, those of Napoleon, Charles V., Madame de Stael, J. J. Rous- 
seau, and the several members of the family of Louis Philippe. But 
what attracts more attention at the present time is the garden, with 
the exterior gallery of the palace. The beautiful enclosure for- 
merly occupied a larger area than at present; as it comprehended, 
besides the present garden, the streets de Valois, de Montpensier, 
and de Beaujolais, as well as that space now occupied by the 
sides of the Palais, which have been more recently built. It was 
adorned with an alley of mulberry-trees, which alone cost Cardi- 
nal Richelieu sixty thousand dollars; but the old Revolution destroyed 
them. The place was once infamous for its gambling-houses, and 
the throngs of doubtful characters that swarmed in it of an evening; 
but the late government banished these, and the galleries are now 
occupied with brilliant cafes, and small, but magnificent bazaars. 
These are the fashionable shops of the city; and they are rich and 
beautiful beyond description. All that can tempt the luxurious, or 
please the vain; whatever can inspire admiration for the industry of 
man, for his exquisite taste; his creating genius; his skill in producing 
the elegant, the beautiful, the magnificent; in fine, whatever can 
delight the eye, captivate the senses, or add charms to beauty, are 
here displayed. One of these small shops rents for three or four 
thousand francs a year. The chairs alone, placed in the garden for 
the convenience of loungers, are said to give a revenue of eight}^ thou- 
sand francs. To see this enchanting spot in all its brillianc}^ you 
should go at night, when countless lamps pour floods of light through 
its delicious gardens and long arcades; when its walks are alive with 
gay promenaders, and its multitude of shops, cafes, and offices are in 



IN FRANCE. 



91 



the full blaze of light, and 
gay people are coming in 
and going out, and people 
from many different climes 
are talking all together in 
strange tongues. There is 
nothing like it in New York, 
nor in any other American 
city, and the vivacity of these 
brilliant throngs is v^onder- 
fully exhilarating and pleas- 
ant to strangers. This is the 
time to see cafe life when in 





TOWER OF ST, JACQUES, RUE DE RIVOLI. 



92 RIP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. 

the full tide of business. It is then, indeed, a scene resplendent with 
gayety, bustle, and animation." 

The abodes of royalty outside of the city, such as St. Cloud, Ver- 
sailles, and Fontainebleau, are in much better preservation, and more 
impressively remind us of the former kings and emperors than the 
city palaces, which have been sacked and desolated by revolutions. 
The scenes which have been witnessed in these places of pleasure 
and beauty come up fresh to the mind as we walk the paths and enter 
the groves. The Louvre, Luxembourg, the Tuileries, and other 
places once so attractive, have, under the Republic, been shorn of 
much of their former elegance. 

There are two chapels in Paris of not great architectural attrac- 
tiveness, but of tender private grief One is the Chapel of St. Ferdi- 
nand. It was erected to commemorate the death of the Duke of 
Orleans, who came to an untimely end in 1842. He was out, rid- 
ing in his carriage, when the horses became unmanageable; and, 
in endeavoring to leap to the ground, his foot was entangled, and 
being precipitated to the earth his skull was fractured. He was 
taken and carried into a grocery on the spot where the chapel now 
stands. His father, Louis Philippe, and the other members of the 
royal family were soon on the ground; but the unfortunate young 
man died in a few hours after. The old grocery was taken down, 
and a chapel, dedicated to St. Ferdinand, was erected on the spot. 
The chapel has seats for about fifty persons, and is fifty feet long, 
built in Gothic style. Opposite the doorway is the altar, and over 
it a statue of the Virgin and Child. On the left side of the chapel is 
another altar. On the right is a beautiful group of stacuary, repre- 
senting the prince on his death-bed, with an angel kneeling over him. 
This angel was the work of Princess Marie, the deceased sister of 
the duke, who little dreamed that she was fashioning the marble for 
the monumental tomb of her brother. Behind the altar is the 
little room in which the prince died, remaining nearly as at that 



1^ 

94 J^IP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. 

time. A few rough chairs, a confessional and crucifix, constitute the 
onl}^ furniture. On one side is a mournful picture representing the 
death-scene as it actually occurred. The duke is stretched upon a 
bed, pale and bleeding. The king holds his hands, with a counte- 
nance full of the deepest grief; the queen and many of the nobles are 
looking on or weeping in the most abject sorrow; while a robed 
priest, with a benign countenance, adds to the effect of the scene. 

The other building of like interest with this is the Chapelle Expia- 
toire. It stands on the spot where the unfortunate Marie Antoinette 
was buried after her execution. It is in the little cemetery belonging 
to the Church of La Madeleine, and is an affecting memorial of one 
who was hated by the French people, because she was of the House 
of Austria. On the records of La Madeleine there still remains a 
charge like this : " /^(9r the coffin of the tuidoiv Capet, seven francs j " 
and this was the whole sum laid out for the interment of the gifted, 
beautiful, and high-born queen, whose word once made proud nobles 
tremble. With her husband, she was placed in an unhonored grave; 
and the gi'ound was afterwards purchased by a stern royalist, who 
planted it as an orchard, that the traces of the graves might not lead 
to a discovery, fearing' that, in some wild and terrible moment, the 
populace might dig up the bones, and insult even their decay. When 
monarchy was restored, the ground was purchased by government, 
and a neat chapel erected over the spot where the king and queen 
were interred. But I must take you outside of Paris. All over 
France are objects of interest and scenes of beauty which repay 
the tourist for the time spent in visiting them. 

Lyons. 

What Manchester is to England, Lyons is to France. It is the 
great manufacturing city, silk-working being one of the main branches 
of industr3^ 

The city lies on both banks of the river Rhone, whose tide comes 
down swollen from the snows of the distant mountains. The streets 



IN FRANCE. 



95 










(^—j=^=:^ lUiCA^'fll'SS 



LYONS. 



are clean and wide, and the houses are, in many instances, elaborate 
and beautiful. The people are divided, as is common in manufactur- 
ing cities, into employers and laborers, and as is usual there is a wide 
chasm between the two classes. The manufacturing establishments 
are mainly on the outskirts of the city, and a transient visitor does not 
realize to what an extent they exist. 

Avignon. 
A wide contrast with Lyons does Avignon present. It is a dull, 
stupid place, and is famous for having been the French refuge for the 
popes, when they found it too hot for them to remain in their own 
capital. 



RIP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. 




AVIGNON. 



I may have been unfortunate in my visit to this place, but it seemed 
to me to be one of the most uninteresting: of all the French towns I have 
seen. There were more officious porters and hackmen at the landing, 
more officious landlords waiting to take advantage of our ignorance, 
more crying children in the streets, and more filthy, wretched habita- 
tions than I ever saw in any one place in so short a time; and of all 
the towns and cities which I visited, of but one other have I brought 
away an impression so unpleasant as of this. Other travellers speak 
very well of Avignon; but my impression was, that if half of the 
people could be shut up in the old popish palace, and the other half 
could be set to work cleaning the streets, it would be a passable town. 



IN FRANCE. 



97 



Rouen. 



Here the tourist finds himself in a city of the most delightful 
surprises. He visits Rouen without expecting much, but leaves it 
pleased with its churches, its shipping, and its venerable aspect. 

This edifice is imposing within and without. The following just 
description of it, and the impression it makes upon the mind, was 
given by an American tourist some years ago, and will be true until 




ST. OUEN, ROUEN. 

St. Ouen crumbles to pieces, and goes to ruin: "We stand before 
the immense mass! The mind at first is almost overwhelmed with its 
vastness, its grandeur, its inexplicable power. The breadth is one 
hundred and three feet, while its length is no less than four hundred 
and thirty-four feet. Its elaborate and richl3'^-ornamented front has three 
fine portals, over the central of which is a square tower, and a beautiful 



98 RIP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. 

spire of iron-work, reaching to the dizzy height of four hundred and 
sixty-four feet eight inches, only thirty-eight feet less than that of the 
Pyramid of Cheops. This is flanked by two lofty but dissimilar tow- 
ers. One of these towers, being older even than the remainder of the 
building itself, is in a simple and unadorned style; but the other, built 
at the end of the fifteenth century, is justly admired for the beauty of 
its architecture. As you gaze upon the complicated pile, amid the 
mazes of its inextricable details, your eye is lost among niches, corners, 
points and pinnacles, ornamented with images of apostles, saints, or, 
more frequently than either, of the Virgin and Child. These, how- 
ever, are no unmeaning ornaments, but they served as a volume of 
religious histor}^, conveying to the unlettered masses real facts of 
Scripture history, and fixed them in the minds of the people with a 
vividness and reality that could not have been secured so well in any 
other way. 

"We will enter the gloomy Gothic structure. Our sensations 
admit of no description. It is not the religious sentiment which seizes 
the mind, only so far as that feeling is always inspired by the works 
of genius; but an indefinite and almost supernatural awe. The vast 
space, the silence that reigns within, the grandeur of the architecture, 
the solemnit3^of the monuments, the impressive power of the pictures, 
and the efl'ect of all these objects immensely heightened by the light 
which comes streaming in from one hundred and thirty windows, the 
glass being stained with every shade of color, from fier}- red to the 
soft tints fading into white, until nave, and choir, and aisles, seem 
magically illuminated; while they elevate the soul, — fill it with vague 
and profound impressions. Indeed, you leave the church, for the first 
time, with an oppressive feeling. The idea is too vast and complex 
to be received into the mind at once. We reach the sublime but by 
degrees; and it is onl}' after a number of visits, and indefatigable 
studies, that the soul is expanded to anything like a just comprehen- 
sion of the vast and magnificent proportions of the wonderful edifice. 



IN FRANCE. 99 

Its contemplation awakens a new sphere of ideas. Its immense vaults 
within, enlarge the thoughts of man, — while the sublime works of 
genius around lend to it a spiritual glow and fervency, — and the 
summit, losing itself in the air, seems to bear the bright image of the 
soul direct to heaven.'" 

Here, in Rouen, the heroic Maid of Orleans, "Joan of Arc," met 
her fate. She was put to death in the Place de la Pucelle, and a 
monument now marks the spot. It seems as if the people might have 
distinguished between heroism and sorcery, and spared this gifted 
maid for the sake of those brave deeds which have made her name an 
inheritance to her nation. 

Amiens. 

There is not much to see at Amiens but the cathedral, and that 
will not be sought except by one who has given some attention to 
ecclesiastical architecture. Some cathedrals can be taken in at once. 
A single glance is sufficient. They strike the eye in their completeness. 
But like the Duomo of Milan, the Cathedral of Amiens needs to be 
studied. A lover of art can go to it again and again, and each time 
come away with a new conception of sublimity and taste. 

France has here and there vestiges of the old Roman times — 

Here some one of the visitors interrupted the reading with the 
question, '""Did the Romans ever have possession of France?" 

Charlie brought down his gavel and said: — "Will may answer 
that question, while Hal is resting." Will, thus called upon, did not 
know what to answer. He had not studied much in ancient history, 
but had a vague idea on the subject, and finally made a reply which 
was substantiall}^ correct. 

"Yes, the Romans held possession of this country and Romanized 
it, planted their peculiar institutions and built their temples, some time 
before the birth of Christ. I have read of the passage of the Alps by 
Hannibal." 

-" Yes," said Hal, who had gone some further in his studies than 



lOO 



RIP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. 



the others, " the accounts of bloody wars for the possession of France, 
or Gaul, are given by Caesar in the ^ Commentaries.' " 

The o-avel descended, and the reading was again ordered. 




AMIENS CATHEDRAL. 

France — says Rip Van Winkle — has here and there vestiges of 
the old Roman times. At Nimes is an old Roman amphitheatre, 
which in its day would seat sixteen thousand spectators. 



IN FRANCE. 



lOI 



This structure is in a tolerable state of preservation, and resembles 
that class of buildings erected for the public shows of the times, of 
which the Coliseum at Rome is the largest and most prominent. 
Another will be found at Aries, an old Roman town, in the valley of the 
Rhone. It is not in as good a state of preservation as is the structure 
at Nimes. In various parts of France there are memorials of the old 
Roman warriors who overran the country and planted their institutions 
everywhere. The ages have made wonderful changes. The Caesars 




AMPHITHEATRE, NtMES, 



5=^^^=^^^^"-^ ' tw«M: H' 



are gone ; Rome has fallen ; while on the sites of these old Roman cities 
is a more modern civilization, compared with which the best state and 
age of Rome were little less than barbarous. 

Marseilles. 
The jumping-off place of France! I came here to take the steamer 
on the blue Mediterranean, and found a bright, sunny, beautiful city, 
just like the French, gay and cheerful. I was pleased and amused 
with a visit made to the Church of " Our Lady," which stands on a 
rocky ledge overlooking the city on one side and the sea on the other. 
It is founded upon the ruins of a temple of the ancient Druids, and 
was built six hundred years ago It is small, dark, and dingy, and is 



I02 



RIP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. 



evidently not designed for public worship. It is now full of votive 
otferings, which hang there as the evidences of a perverted religious 
sentiment. Sailors when in danger at sea, and men and women when 
sick at home, make vows to the Virgin, and when they recover, or are 
delivered from peril, whatever it may be, are accustomed to bring 
some offering to this chapel. These offernigs are of small value, and 
have reference and allusion to the peculiar circumstances in which 
the person has been placed. Here are many pictures — some repre- 




AMPHITHEATRE, ARLES. 



senting a shipwreck, some a sick-bed, some one scene, and some 
another. They are in value from live cents to five dollars. Here 
also are models of ships; strings of beads; crosses; clothing which 
persons had on when saved from danger; crutches which were used 
by the lame before their recovery; wax and stone hands, feet and 
arms, contributed by persons who had lost such limbs, but whose 
health was restored. Some of these articles are very old, and some 
date as far down as the present year. On the chapel is a bell, beauti- 
fully chased without, and weighing twenty thousand pounds. The 
tongue is eight feet long, and must weigh near half a ton. From the 



;(51i(ijiff=3^^ 




^m 



I04 



RIP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. 




NOTRE DAME DE LA GARDE, MARSEILLES. 

flat tower of this chapel a fine view is obtained. On one side is th( 
town, with its red-tile roofs, public buildings, churches, and its narrow 
winding streets; beyond, imbosomed in rich foliage and shady trees 
are scattered on the hill-sides six thousand country-seats of the mor( 
wealthy people; and behind all are the bleared and cloud-cappec 
mountains. On the other side is seen the beautiful Mediterranean 
first, the docks, old and new; then the harbor, in which is the islanc 
containing the prison in which Mirabeau was confined in his youth b] 



IN FRANCE. 105 

his austere parent, which confinement made him the cruel man that 
he became. Beyond stretches the boundless blue, and we were told 
that on every clear day we could see out forty miles, which statement 
you may credit if you please. The harbor was covered with neat 
gondolas with fancy awnings, and lazy occupants lounging in the 
shade, while out to sea were seen the larger vessels, the full-rigged 
ship, and the puffing, bustling little steamers. 

You need not suppose that I have told you all I saw in France, or 
have written to you about all the places which I visited. I have 
selected those places and objects that I thought might be most inter- 
esting to the Triangle. France is a beautiful country; with a more 
settled government, and sounder religious life, it would be the gar- 
den of the world. The poor people seem to be very comfortable. 
The women of the lower orders are cheerful and happy. 

The French live much in the open air. In the city, they throng 
the public walks and gardens; and in the country, they cultivate the 
fields, and women perform much manual labor. I had often read 
of the part taken in the various revolutions by the women of Paris, 
but never could understand it. I had read of that mob of women 
which swept out to Versailles, and back again to Paris, controlling 
the army, overawing the populace, judging the king, and overturn- 
ing the government, but was always at a loss to understand the secret. 
But a brief residence in Paris explains the whole. The lower class 
of women in France are accustomed to all kinds of hardship, and have 
unsexed themselves by the constant performance of rough out-of-door 
duties; and, by contact with coarse, uncouth men, they become as 
masculine, brazen, and bold as the soldiers in the army. Wander- 
ing through their pleasure-grounds, the}^ present a gay and pleasing 
spectacle, with the sparkling black eye, and the frank, open coun- 
tenance; but when aroused and maddened by revenge or want, enter 
into scenes of violence and strife. 

The schools in France are not what they are in our country. 



io6 



RIP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. 




PEASANT AT HOME. 

While there are some good schools, there are many poor ones, and 
in many parts of the country early education is much neglected. 
Whether France remains a Republic will depend on the honor and 
integrity of her people. There must be intelligence and patriotism, 



or a free government will not stand. 



Rip Van Winkle. 



io8 



RIP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. 



IN ITALY. 




" Order in the Triangle," 
cried the President. The dis- 
order had been made by a score 
of young persons who had been 
invited in to Hsten to the monthly 
reading from the old master. The 
visitors were more numerous 
than usual, and more important. 
In one corner of the room, with 
his elbow on the table, was the 
minister of the parish-church 
where Master Van Wert, when 
at home, always worshipped. 
Centre of a group of young people, who were asking him all kinds 
of questions, was Dr. Oldschool, who had practised medicine for 
more than half a century. Besides these, several ladies and gentle- 
men had come in, to make the evening a merry one. 

Order being restored, the communication of the honorary corre- 
spondent was opened. Master Van Wert first related the particulars 
of his voyage down the Mediterranean Sea, and gave an account of 
a visit to the city of Genoa, where the steamer anchored for twelve 
hours, giving her passengers time to see the city of Columbus. In 
all Catholic countries the churches are generally the chief objects of 
interest. They are the picture-galleries, the art-museums, and the 



THE CAPITOL. 




GENOA FROM THE HEIGHTS. 

curiosity-shops of the people. This is especially so in Genoa whe.e 
the churches are numerous and superb, and are hi ed w. h all sorts o 
trumpery, from the bones of a dead dog to a marble Beelzebub. The 
old Tathe'dral is built in alternate layers of black ^"^J^^^^^^ 
and is an interesth.g though not a beautiful bu.ldmg. Here he supe 
stitious Catholics cla,m to keep the bones of John the Baptist m a l^tle 
chapel, under a marble sarcophagus. The bones are nr - -on box 
enclosed in another of marbk. A great amount of ™«-y '= ^'^f 
upon these bones once a year, when they are taken out and a frohc 
held over them. In this cathedral is kept a d- , P-bab y o^ g^a^^ 
which the monks say is formed of a single emerald, called the Sacra 



no RIP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. 

Catino. Some affirm that It was presented by the Queen of Sheba 
to Solomon; others declare that it was the dish in which the paschal 
lamb was put at the great feast; and others still assure us that it was 
the dish in which Joseph of Arimathea caught the flowing blood of 
Jesus as he hung upon the cross. 

Continuing his way down the coast, the good master touched at | 
Leghorn and Civita Vecchia, and at length reached the place of more W 
interest than perhaps any other in Ital}^ ! 

Naples. 4 

Imagine, boys, that you have been dozing all night in the cabin * 
of a little steamer on the Mediterranean Sea. Before your berth in 5 
that narrow saloon several men, not a word of whose language you 1 
could understand, have been engaged in gambling with cards and 
dice: now vociferatins;' in the most villanous dialects, and anon rising: i 
with the most vehement gesticulations to clutch each other by the | 
throat. Added to this, ten thousand fleas have taken possession of k 
the cabin, and in legions are hopping about over the poor bodies 
of those who have been strivino^ to o^et a little needful rest. Health- 
ful sleep has been impossible, and you rise early and go on deck, 
to find the steamer just entering the beautiful bay of Naples. The 
full moon is just setting, and in the east the first beams of the morning 
sun are lighting up and reddening with beauty the horizon. Before 
370U is a vision of loveliness, a panorama of beauty such as you have 
never seen before. 

At first, perhaps, there ma}' be a feeling of disappointment. The 
traveller, on entering St. Peter's at Rome, is always disappointed. 
Everything in that vast edifice is so well proportioned, the whole 
structure is so perfectly harmonious, that the full effect is not taken 
in at a single glance. It grows on you. You gaze and gaze, until 
a nameless awe creeps over 3'ou, and you stand dumb in the presence 
of that miracle of architecture. 

So the bay of Naples is wonderfully harmonious. Sea and shore. 



IN ITALY. Ill 

plain and mountain, straight lines and curves, are so finely blended, 
that the stranger stands and gazes until his senses are absorbed, and 
his whole being is charmed with the wonderful beaut}^ of this mira- 
cle of Nature! No wonder that the Italian enthusiast welcomes the 
stranger to his sunny land with the egotistic salutation, " See Naples 
and die!" 

Into the bay of Naples you are sailing. The semi-circular sheet 
of water, covered with tiny boats, lies spread out around you. On 
one side, rising on its terraced hills, is the city of Naples, — its pal- 
aces, churches, convents, and gardens sloping to the shore. On the 
other side Mount Vesuvius, with its kindred elevations, rises full in 
view! "Is that Vesuvius? " the traveller asks, as he gazes on that 
modest-lookins: mountain, from which a stream of thin mist is con- 
stantly ascending. Who would think that so pretty a little hill coild 
be capable of such acts of violence, such deeds of destruction, such 
monstrous outbursts of volcanic fury? Who would imagine that 
from that cone-like summit had poured forth burning lava, and 
molten stones, and heated ashes, enough in one night to bury out 
of sight, for eighteen hundred years, the most populous cities! Who 
could conceive of the fearful enginery, the colossal furnaces, the 
awful foundries, ever at work, down beneath that brown summit on 
which a light cloud seems to be resting! 

We are on our way to visit that old mountain, to see the cities at 
its base. Let us stop a day in Naples and study the phenomena 
which prepare us for our explorations in Pompeii. 

The whole region here is volcanic. Indeed, no one can tell how 
soon the city of Naples may disappear, and a burning crater occupy 
its place. There are evidences in all directions that smothered fires 
are burning underneath, and where they will break forth time only 
can tell. Vesuvius is now the great burning safety-valve, but if any 
occurrence should close that, these fires beneath would find vent 
somewhere. 



112 



RIP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. 



One of the famous excursions for travellers, from Naples, is to 
£aicB, the imperial resort, in the old days of Roman grandeur: an 
excursion which is almost startling, with its volcanic indications. The 
wa}^ out of the city is through the long tunnel, which Seneca called the 
"prison for slaves," known as the Grotto of Posilippo, a road dug out 
under a mountain, half a mile long, one hundred and fifty feet high, 
and wide enough for three carriages to drive abreast. It was hewn 

out at an immense expense of 
time and labor, and was prob- 
ably the work of slaves; per- 
haps of the early Christians, 
who, incurring the displeasure 
of the pagans, were sent here 
to toil and die on the public 
road. The rock is volcanic, 
and was upheaved in some 
convulsion of Nature, the 
memor}^ of which is lost in the 
lapse of time. Emerging from 
the grotto, the ride is through 
a country which bears various 
marks of volcanic influence. 
Hills have been cast up rudely 
by the wayside, and mountains 
overhang which look as if they 
had recently been disgorged from the bowels of the earth. The 
ruins of houses which have been shaken down by eruptions appear 
along the way, broken aqueducts and baths, and all the evidences of 
spoiled art and ruined luxur}'. 

The famous hot-springs, known as the "Baths of Nero," produce 
water so hot that eggs are boiled ,in it with ease in five minutes. 
They are ninety feet from the surface, reached by a winding passage, 




VESUVIUS. 



IN ITALY. 113 

and a person bringing water from them reaches the open air cov- 
ered with vapor and perspiration, and almost fainting v^ith heat and 
exhaustion. One shudders at the idea that betw^een a populous city, 
w^ith its four hundred and twenty-five thousand inhabitants, and a 
yawning ocean of surging fire, there is but a thin crust, — so thin 
that at any time the pent-up heat may burst through. 

Another reminder of what has been, and yet may be, is the little 
Lake Agnano, a sheet of water about three miles in circumference, 
situated near Pozzuoli. The lake is in the bed of an extinct and 
settled volcano, and the waters are very deep. At every eruption of 
Vesuvius, these waters rise and fall, showing a connection with the 
awful doings of that volcano, though it is between twenty and thirty 
miles distant. 

On the shores of the lake are several grottoes, which are objects 
of considerable curiosity. One, the Cavern of Charon, now the "Dog 
Grotto," derives its name from the fact that dogs are here made the 
subject of a curious experiment. In this cave, a vapor rises from the 
ground which is fatal to life. A torch brought into contact with it is 
immediately extinguished, and a dog bound and thrown upon the 
ground will die in two minutes. The dog that was put in on the 
occasion of my visit remained about eighty seconds, and was, at the 
expiration, unable to rise. A pistol, loaded in the best manner, would 
not discharge itself when held near the ground. 

Near by is an " Ammonia Grotto," or a cave in which ammonia 
gas rises from the ground. The earth is cold, and yet an intense heat 
arises from it; and, though no draught of wind can be perceived, one 
feels all the heat and gentle influence which are derived while stand- 
ing over the register of a large furnace. The effect of inhaling the 
gas is highly exhilarating, and one would soon become intoxicated, as 
with opium or ether. 

Turning from the volcanic indications found everywhere around 
Naples, we attend a moment to Vesuvius. This remarkable mountain, 



114 



RIP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. 



the destroyer of Pompeii, is about ten miles south-east of the city, its 
bleak grand summit rising to a height of three thousand nine hundred 
and fift}^ feet above the level of the sea. The first eruption of which 
we have any knowledge was that which destroyed Herculaneum, 
and since then there have been periods of hundreds of years when 
no great convulsion has taken place. Since 163 1 the eruptions have 
been more frequent, and some of them of a character truly awful; 
that which occurred m 1779 is described as the grandest and most 
awful of these phenomena that ever occurred. The ashes that year 
were carried to Egypt in one direction, and to Constantinople in 
another. Stones of tons' weight were thrown into the air to a height 
of two thousand feet. One of the rocks projected from the mouth of 
the crater measured one hundred and eight feet in circumference, and 
was seventeen feet in height. In the eruption of 1794, a stream of 
lava issued from the mountain, estimated by scientific men to contain 
forty-six million cubic feet. 

In August, A. D. 79, occurred the eruption which destroyed 
Pompeii. Early in that month the mountain gave signs of terrible 
activity. The lakes and ponds in the neighborhood were affected. 
They rose and fell without any assignable cause. Strange unearthly 
sounds, like the rumbling of a thousand chariots over hollow pave- 
ments, were heard. Now and then an opening chasm, emitting 
sulphurous clouds which hung like a sable pall over the doomed city, 
would be seen; and at intervals a jet of flame thrown into the air 
would fall just without the walls, as if the mighty powers below were 
trifling with the fears of men. The people were at their usual avoca- 
tions, and while the volcano was preparing to bring its artillery to bear 
upon their habitations, they were shouting over the wounded, dying 
gladiator, and singing bacchanalian songs in the temples of their 
divinities. 

But at length the hour came; and from the summit of the moun- 
tain flashed terrific lightnings, forked and fier}^, and forth came a 



I 



IN ITALY. 



115 



shower of ashes which darkened the sun; a torrent of water came 
down boiling upon the plains below, and a more fearful stream of 
molten matter, which directed its course towards the villages and towns 
which yesterday resounded with shouts and songs. The scene must 
have been one of indescribable and awful grandeur. That old moun- 
tain quaking and trembling, and belching forth huge masses of rocks 
and scoria, which, clashing against each other in the air, scattered into 
fragments, and falling upon the beautiful villas in the neighborhood, 
set them on fire; the streams of boiling water and sparkling cinders, 
mingling and falling heavily upon the house-tops and in the streets; 
the changing character of the whole scene, from lurid brightness now 
to dense and dismal darkness then; the long, hurried procession of 
slaves, with torches and treasures, hastening with their masters down 
to the sea; houses reeling and falling, crushing to pieces the fugitive 
in his wild flight; nobles and beggars alike asking for aid in vain; the 
wild outcries of the followers of Jesus, who imagined that the day of 
doom had come, and were uttering notes of warning; the pillage of 
houses vacated by their owners, by men who were unterrified by the 
convulsion of the world; and all the fearful phenomena of nature 
which that day were witnessed by the flying sensualists of Pompeii, — 
must have thrown over the whole an aspect of unutterable terror, 
equalled by nothing in the history of the world since the flood and the 
conflagration of Sodom. 

You know that Caius Plinius Secundus, known as Pliny the 
Elder, a celebrated Roman writer, perished at the time Pompeii was 
destro3''ed. He was in command of the fleet, and his ship was in the 
bay of Naples. Wishing to observe the phenomena he approached too 
near the wrathful mountain and met his doom. Pliny the younger, 
the nephew and adopted son of this unfortunate man, in a letter to his 
friend Tacitus, gives an account of the sad disaster, and also the best 
account of the eruption extant. Speaking of his uncle, he says: "He 
was at the time, with the fleet under his command, at Misenum. On 



Il6 RIP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. 

the 24th of August, about one in the afternoon, my mother desired him 
to observe a cloud which appeared of a very unusual size and shape. 
He had just returned from taking the benefit of the sun, and after 
bathing himself in cold water, and taking a slight repast, had retired 
to his study. He immediately arose, and went out upon an eminence, 
from whence he might more distinctly view this very uncommon 
appearance. It was not, at that distance, discernible from what moun- 
tain this cloud issued, but it was found afterwards to ascend from 
Mount Vesuvius. I cannot give a more exact description of its figure 
than by comparing it to that of a pine-tree; for it shot up to a great 
height in the form of a trunk, which extended itself at the top into a 
sort of branches, occasioned, I imagine, either by a sudden gust of 
air that impelled it, the force of which decreased as it advanced up- 
wards, or the cloud itself, being pressed back again by its own weight, 
expanded in this manner. It appeared sometimes bright and some- 
times dark and spotted, as it was more or less impregnated with earth 
and cinders. This extraordinary phenomenon excited my uncle's 
philosophical curiosity to take a nearer view of it. He ordered a 
light ves'sel to be got ready, and gave me the liberty, if I thought 
proper, to attend him. I rather chose to continue my studies; for, as 
it happened, he had given me an employment of that kind. As he 
was coming out of the house, he received a note from Rectina, the 
wife of Bassus, who was in the utmost alarm at the imminent danger 
which threatened her; for, her villa being situated at the foot of Mount 
Vesuvius, there was no way to escape but by sea. She earnestly 
entreated him, therefore, to come to her assistance. He accordingly 
changed his first design, and what he began wdth a philosophical he 
pursued with a heroical turn of mind. He ordered the galleys to put 
to sea, and went himself on board, with an intention of assisting not 
only Rectina, but several others; for the villas stand extremely thick 
upon that beautiful coast. When hastening to the place from whence 
others fled with the utmost terror, he steered his direct course to the 



IN ITALY. 117 

point of danger, and with so much calmness and presence of mind, 
as to be able to make and dictate his observations upon the motion 
and figure of that dreadful scene. He was now so nigh the mountain 
that the cinders, which grew thicker and hotter the nearer he ap- 
proached, fell into the ships, together with pumice-stones, and 
black pieces of burning rock. They were likewise in danger not 
only of being aground by the sudden retreat of the sea, but also from 
the vast fragments which rolled down from the mountain, and ob- 
structed all the shore." 

The account continues that Pliny and his friends and officers 
landed, deeming the earth less dangerous than the sea, and having 
advanced, with napkins upon their heads, near the mountain, he lay 
down upon the ground to rest, when, as his nephew states, "the flames 
and a strong smell of sulphur, which was the forerunner of them, dis- 
persed the rest of the company, and obliged him to rise. He raised 
himself up, with the assistance of two of his servants, and instantly 
fell down dead — suftbcated, as I conjecture, by some gross and nox- 
ious vapor, having always had weak lungs, and being frequently sub- 
ject to a difficulty of breathing. As soon as it was light again, which 
was not till the third day after this melancholy accident, his body was 
found entire, and without any marks of violence upon it, exactly in 
the same posture that he fell, and looking more like a man asleep 
than dead." 

Though overwhelmed in the same eruption, Herculaneum was 
destroyed by a tide of lava, while Pompeii was covered up by a 
shower of soft ashes. The former city was first discovered. King 
Charles of Spain fixed upon Portici as one of his royal residences. 
In sinking a well in 1738, three statues were found, which led to 
explorations, and these explorations being followed up, it was discov- 
ered that Portici was built above the ancient cit}' of Herculaneum. 
Much interest was felt by the scientific world, but the labor and 
expense of excavation is such that little has been done to uncover the 



ii8 



RIP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. ■ 



temples and palaces which are locked up in the rocky embrace. An 
old theatre, some works of art, certain ancient and yet undeciphered 
manuscripts, and sundry other evidences of a great city, have thus far 
rewarded the laborious antiquarians; but no success that corresponds 
with the time, labor and expense of the undertaking. All future exca- 
vations made here will be slow and tedious, and meet with every 
obstacle from the inhabitants of Portici, who are very naturally averse 




PERISTYLE OF THE HOUSE OF THE QUESTOR. 

to having the town undermined, and its foundations hewn away. 
What lies beneath none can tell; what temples, what theatres, what 
exquisite works of art, what noble designs, what buried treasures, 
must long remain unknown. The work of destruction was not com- 
pleted by one eruption. The stratified crustation shows that again and 
again the waves of fire have rolled over that doomed city, and the 
present quiet appearance of Vesuvius is no indication that lightnings 
will not again burst forth from its fiery bosom. The excavations now 



IN ITALY. 



119 



made only need a new earthquake to fill them up, and Portici only 
waits a new eruption to sweep its palaces away. 

Pompeii being buried by a shower of ashes, the work of exhuming 
it has been more speedy and successful. Thus far about fift}^ acres 
have been dug over, and streets, dwellings, and public buildings are 
laid open. These ashes fell so fast that many had no opportunity to 
escape, or were buried in the streets as they were pursuing their v^ay 




BAKERS OVEN, BREAD, AND FLOUR-MILLS. 



to the distant sea. Thus far some three or four hundred skeletons 
have been found, while countless others may yet be lying in those 
parts of the city which have not been disinterred. 

The impression made on the mind by a walk through the streets 
of Pompeii time can hardly efface. The pavements, the houses, the 
columns, as they were when, eighteen centuries ago, the torrent fell 
upon them, are on every side. The shops of the traders, with the 
signs still up; the frescoes on the walls, as bright and lively as ever; 



I20 RIP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. 

the mosaics of stone and shell, clear and distinct; the various evi- 
dences of exquisite taste and finish, — all seem like a dream, when we 
are told that the hands that made them trembled in death before the 
crucifixion. 

Entrance to Pompeii from Naples is by the famous Appian Way. 
At the gate you are reminded of the fact that, when the city was ex- 
humed, the tall skeleton of a man in armor was found here. He was 
the Roman sentinel, and while others fled from the city he remained. 
True to his dut}^, he stood still while crowds swept by him out of the 
open gate. His own life was as precious to him as was the life of the 
most frightened refugee on that night of terror; but he was a soldier 
-—a Roman soldier, who knew no word but "duty," loyal to no pur- 
pose but "obedience," — and there he stood until death came, while 
the soft ashes closed around him, shut out the worlds and left him 
standing for eighteen hundred years, a monument of fidelity and an 
example to all men. 

Not far from where this soldier stood a group of four persons was 
found. A mother and her three children, unable to escape, fell down 
and died. She was found bent over them, her arms outspread, and 
her whole attitude indicative of an effort to save them. The world 
never reared a more significant monument of maternal love than that. 
It stood there eighteen hundred years — eighteen million years could 
not crumble it. 

The story of Diomede has been told by Bulwer in one of his best 
novels. This rich man's residence was not far from the gate, on Via 
Appia. The remains show that it must have been a house of great 
elegance. It was probably, as it stood near the mountain, buried as 
soon as any other part of the cit}^ When it was disinterred, the 
remains gave vivid witness of the last scene in the awful play. It is 
evident that the occupants of the house, finding themselves cut off 
from flight, or supposing that the storm of fire and ashes would soon 
abate, retired to the subterranean passages below, with lights and food, 




113 



m 'm 



Will': 



mm 



122 RIP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. 

and wine, and there perished. Seventeen skeletons were found pent 
up in these vaults, whither the}^ had fled for safety and protection — 
alas! their sepulchres. One of them was an infant, whose little form 
still clung in death to the bony bosom of her who gave it birth. An- 
other was the little daughter of Diomede, the impression of whose 
rounded chest, made in the consolidated scoria, still is shown in Naples 
— the flesh consumed, but the bust remains to tell even the texture of 
the dress, as well as the finished beauty of the neck and arms. Two 
others were children, and when they were unburied, " some of their 
blond hair was still existent." In the common fear, the usual distinc- 
tions of life were forgotten, and the mistress and her slaves were 
huddled together, distinguished, seventeen centuries after, only by the 
jewelry which still hung upon the stiffened skeleton of the former. 

Diomede himself evidently made an attempt to escape, but was 
not successful. He was found in his garden with a bunch of keys in 
his hand, and near by him a slave with some silver vases and several 
gold and silver coins. With what he could seize upon, the wealthy 
proprietor of the beautiful villa, attended by his trusty slave, left his 
family, who dared not follow him, and sought safety in flight, but only 
hastened his terrible end. His vast wealth, his humble slaves, his 
offices and honors were not respected by the descending fragments of 
stone, b}' some one of which he was smitten to the earth. 

It was a custom in those days to punish men by fastening the feet 
in stocks. These stocks were generally in the highway near the 
gates, that the crowds constantly going in and out might see and take 
warning. Near one gate, two men were found thus fastened by their 
feet. The magistrates had sentenced them to remain there for a few 
hours — they have not moved for seventeen hundred years. When the 
shower began to fall, and the people to flee, the officers of justice 
forgot their victims, who were smothered as they sat wildl}' calling 
for aid. 

The houses of the gentry in Pompeii were magnificent structures. 



IN ITALY. 



123 



They were generally one story high, never more than two, but cov- 
ered a large area of land. They consisted of suites of apartments 
on the four sides of a beautiful court. The rich pilasters and col- 
umns, the marble and mosaic pavements, the graven images, the 
frescoed walls, — all indicate an extreme of elegance and opulence. 
The house of Sallust is one of the most remarkable. Scientific men 




ATRIUM OF HOUSE OF PANZA, RESTORED. 



had no trouble in distinguishing it from others around it. The 
remarkable preservation of the frescos on the walls of this house 
show that the painters of Pompeii were acquainted with arts which 
are lost to us. We have no frescos now which will stand the assaults 
of time even under the most favorable circumstances, but these have 
resisted not only the streams of boiling water and the showers of ashes, 
but also the steady, onward march of ages, which with ceaseless tramp 
have been wandering over them. 



124 ^^P ^AN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. 

The house of Panza is traced out, well arranged, spacious, and 
splendid even in its ruins. The doorway still remains, with its beau- 
tiful Corinthian pilasters; and the interior of the house, though broken 
and defaced, has many marks of its former elegance. The mosaics 
which yet remain, when the dust is removed from them, are found to 
be very beautiful, and show a carefulness of design and a correctness 
of finish which would do honor to the skill and taste of a later age. 

The house of the tragic poet, so called, which was exhumed in 
1824, is an object of great interest. The various apartments are full 
as the walls can hang w^ith historical paintings. As the stranger 
crosses the marble threshold and enters the hall, a chained fox-dog, 
looking fiercely and preparing to spring, causes him almost to retreat 
in dismay. Farther on he sees various paintings, illustrating the cus- 
toms and manners of the ancient inhabitants. The walls seem to 
speak forth eloquent words, and the longer one gazes, the more is 
he surprised at the accuracy of the work before him, and its won- 
derful preservation amid the changes of the past. Here is Jupiter 
wedding the unwilling Thetis to a mortal; the priests of Diana en- 
gaged in preparing for the human sacrifice; the great chariot-race 
between the gods; the battle of the Amazons; and many others. 
Many of these paintings are being removed to Naples, where they 
are visited by thousands, who gaze upon them with wonder. 

The houses of the Great and Little Fountains, so called because 
fountains are the most prominent things found in them, and many 
others of persons known to have been residents of Pompeii at the 
time, are pointed out. 

The shops are as interesting as the houses, and are more definite 
in their character. There yet remain some signs by which the dif- 
ferent places of trade and the various warehouses are distinguished. 
Statues and paintings, illustrative of the different articles used, manu- 
factured, or sold, and the different modes of operation, tell you where 
to find the shop of the baker and the house of the butcher. Three 



IN ITALY. 



125 



baker's shops have been uncovered, in which are the ovens ready for 
use, the mills in w^hich the grain was broken, the kneading-troughs, 
the various articles used in the making of bread, and the bread itself, 
well done, since it has been baking so long over the fires of the 
volcano. The bread, of course, and the bakers' articles have been 
removed to Naples, and are on exhibition there. The loaves are 
flat, baked in moulds, and some of them are stamped with the name 
of the maker. They vary in size from six inches to twelve inches in 
diameter. The ashes in which they were burnt baked them to a 
crisp first, and then preserved them. 

The shop of the apothecar}^, with all his implements, has been 
found in a tolerable state of preservation; and various other evi- 
dences of the trade of the city were found remaining when the 
excavations were made. These all show that the arts were more 
perfect in Italy, under the reign of the pagan emperors, than under 
the oppressive enactments of later rulers. The course of the people 
has been downward for centuries. The public mind has been 
enslaved, the public conscience has been seared, and the public hand 
has been palsied. The sweet voice of music, and the more rude 
sound of the hammer, have alike been hushed, and the noble fac- 
ulties of the artisan were turned for ages to the construction of infernal 
machines, to rack humanity out of the children of God. 

The Temple of Isis is one of the best preserved buildings in the 
city. It is eighty-four feet long and seventy-five feet broad, and 
now so perfect in its ruins that its construction and arrangement can 
be easily discovered. The private staircases, the secret tabernacles, 
the vestures and holy vessels, have been found. The altar on which 
the human sacrifice was burnt, and the oratory in which his bones and 
ashes w^ere put, have come down to our times. Here in this temple, 
also, were found the evidences of the suddenness of the eruption. 
Near the main door was discovered a skeleton of one of the priests, 
drawn into the temple perhaps for plunder, and perhaps for devo- 



126 



RIP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. 



tion, at the awful hour when the city was being overwhelmed. The 
ashes, falling against the door outside, rendered his escape impos- 
sible. The posture in which he was found shows how terribly he 




CLEARING A STREET. 

struggled for life. A hatchet was in his hand, and on the walls, 
one of which he had beaten through, were marks v/here he had 
been endeavoring to cut his way out of prison, but in vain. The 



IN ITALY. 



127 



thick wall resisted all his efforts; the ashen rain fell faster; and the 
noxious gases, sifting into his narrow sepulchre, soon destroyed his 
life. 

In another place, a priest was found sitting at the table eating. 
The remains of his dinner were before him. The remnant of an o,^^ 
and the limb of a fowl tell us on what he was making his repast. 
Driven in from more public duties, he sat down to eat, thinking the 
storm would soon cease. Now and then, as he hummed a low tune, 
or breathed a superstitious prayer, he looked out upon the mountain 
that thundered, lightened, bellowed, and blazed full before him, and 
wondered what new display the gods were about to make. And 
there he sat, the room insensibly filling up with the vapor, which soon 
destroyed respiration; and, bowing his head upon his hand, he fell 
asleep, to wake no more. The teinple was soon covered with the 
ashes, which, forcing their way into the room, made a winding-sheet 
for the victim. 

In another room, a priest w^as found with a handful of coin, which 
he had probably stolen in the hour when fear prevailed in every 
breast. Stopping to count his treasure, or to look for more, he 
stopped too long; and, with the spoils in his hand, he died. Other 
priests were found, enabling us to conjecture, from the positions in 
which they were, that death came very unexpectedly, while they 
were attending to ordinary duties. Who they were, and how they 
felt, none can tell; but when ages had rolled away, they were found 
in the temple of their idolatry, victims at an altar where they had 
often caused human blood to flow in torrents. 

Some one may ask — " How does the city as a whole appear?" 
Very much as one of our most beautiful modern cities would, if on 
some terrible night, it should be burned up, and destroyed suddenly 
b}^ showers of ashes, stones, and lava, and after a while should be 
found with the roofs all broken in, the windows and doors gone or 
shattered, and the walls standing, with the stone fronts and fine 



128 RIP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. 

columns, in many cases, uninjured. Something as one feels when he 
walks through a street the houses on both sides of which have been 
shaken down by a tornado, or swept b}^ an extensive conflagration, 
leaving nothing but rocks and ruins, tenantless walls and crumbling 
remains, does he feel when pursuing his way through the streets of 
Pompeii. He does not wish to speak; the spirits of the past seem to 
be around him; he converses with forgotten ages, and leaves the spot 
saying, " I have seen a vision." Again and again does he turn back, 
gazing first on the destroyer, and then on the destroyed. Fancy again 
rebuilds the city, makes it active with life, and vocal with pleasure 
and industry. The Temple of Isis, of Jupiter, of Venus, the Forum, 
the Amphitheatre, the houses of the noble citizens, are all as they 
M^ere ere the terrible overthrow. He looks upon the mountain, which, 
while he gazes, becomes agitated and troubled. Down its sides flow 
torrents of lava; from its summit, around which shadows and spectres 
dance, pour the shower of ashes and the tides of boiling water which 
fall on the city below. Consternation seizes the people. One loud, 
mighty cry — "To the sea! to the sea" — arises from priest and poet, 
gladiator and senator; and out they sweep, masters and slaves, leaving 
behind them houses and lands, and, in man}^ cases, sick and aged 
friends. Still he gazes; but the people are gone, the mountain is 
quiet, and nought remains of Pompeii but forty acres of ruins and 
a vast pile of sepulchres, which are covered with the dust of nearly 
eighteen centuries. Only about one fourth of the city has been 
uncovered, and from the beginning the excavations have been slow 
and tedious. The great want of enterprise in this direction is unfor- 
tunate, as not an acre has been exposed to vicAV without some sub- 
stantial contribution to the science of archseology. The old Bourbon 
government of Naples was so limited in exchequer that it had no 
means for the prosecution of scientific discoveries, and the troubled 
state of the country for a long time prevented vigorous efforts to 
see what is still buried beneath the thick crustwork of ashes. Now 



IN ITALY. 



129 



that the government of Ital}' is in Rome, and freedom makes the 
Eternal City its capital, we may expect that not only Pompeii, but also 
Herculaneum, will become objects of the greatest interest, and money 
and means will be freely used in their exploration. 

The streets which are now open run regularly, and are laid with 
volcanic blocks of lava. They cross each other rectangularly, and 
give evidence of having been laid out with scientific care. They are 




SEARCHING FOR REMAINS. 



quite narrow, varying from twelve to twenty feet, though there are one 
or two from twenty-five to thirty feet. In all of them the carriage 
ruts are seen deeply worn into the stone which, though soft when first 
used, is now as hard as flint. Only the main thoroughfares seem to 
have been laid out for carriages, or much travelling. As in other east- 
ern cities, the business seems to have been confined to the great 
arteries of traffic, while the minor streets w^ere mere passages 
between the various houses. Indeed, the street leading from Hercu- 



I30 



RIP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. 



laneum Gate to the Forum, which must have been much frequented, 
is only of an average width of twelve to fourteen feet. We must 
remember that in those days, carriages for private convenience, or for 
the removal of freight, were very few, and that travelling was accom- 
plished generally on the backs of donkeys and mules. The streets 
of Pompeii are more spacious than are those of Constantinople or 
Cairo, at the present time, though they would be found singularly 
inconvenient in one of our own cities. 

The city, as nearly as it can be traced, was oval in form, surrounded 
on all sides, except the part of the place which faces the sea, by a 
thick wall, which had in it formidable towers. The wall and towers 
must have been in a somewhat ruined state at the time of the eruption, 
as they show evidences of decay which could not have been wrought 
by the shower of ashes, and which are not found in the city habitations 
and stores. They had probably become useless, and had beei allowed 
to go to decay. 

The two-story houses were generally built partly of wood, the 
upper story being of that material. That story was not often used for 
living or sleeping purposes, but for storage and like uses. The soft 
ashes and cinders falling on them consumed the wood-work, and sift- 
ing down filled all the apartments below, preserving them, as they 
were found after seventeen hundred years. 

The population of the city at the time was about twenty-five 
thousand. But few of these perished. The ashes, falling gradually, 
allowed time for the affrighted people to escape. Some who 
remained in fidelity to duty, some who were sick and unable to flee, 
and others who hid themselves, supposing the eruption would soon 
be over, seem to have been mainly, all that were destroyed. An 
irregular building near the great theatre, in which were found 
numerous war implements, also contained sixty-four skeletons, sup- 
posed to be soldiers who were too faithful to Roman discipline to 
escape. What the other portions of the city may reveal when it is 



IN ITALY. 



131 



uncovered we do not know, but thus far this is the largest number yet 
found in one place. 

Probably the best portion of the city has been revealed. The 
Forum, in the south-west section, with its Doric colonnade, enclosing 
an area four hundred and eighty feet in length by one hundred and 
five feet in breadth; the temples of Jupiter, Venus, Fortune, Isis, 
Neptune; two theatres, the great tragic theatre, and one of less size, 
the Odeon; the public baths; the barracks of the soldiers, with many 
elegant private edifices are exhumed, and it is not probable that a city 
of twenty-five thousand inhabitants would have a much larger num- 
ber, a greater variety of public buildings. Then nothing has yet been 
seen of any inferior houses, nothing to indicate a section for the poor, 
and of course those are yet to be found. It is most likely that the 
excavations commenced at the gate on the Appian way, struck at once 
into the best portion of the city, while that which remains to be 
uncovered will be of less interest to the superficial observer and 
the exploring antiquarian. 

It is singular that for so many ages Pompeii should have remained 
undiscovered. It suddenly disappeared from history in August, 
A. D., 79. Until 1748 — about seventeen hundred years — it remained 
undiscovered and unknown. Yet the average depth to which it was 
buried was only fifteen feet, and that too of soft ashes which a child 
could have shovelled away. An architect of note in Rome had com- 
menced an aqueduct directly -across it, in the early part of the seven- 
teenth century, and about the same time one of the most distinguished 
geographers of the age had, after various experiments and extensive 
research, located Pompeii several miles from its actual site, — and 
all this while the highest buildings were protruding from the earth, 
beneath their feet. The covering of Pompeii must have been very 
slight. It now lies but fifteen feet beneath the surface, and it is 
likely that a part of this fifteen feet has been formed by subse- 
quent eruptions. The crust seems to be in layers or strata, and 



132 



RIP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. 



these have doubtless been added during the lapse of seventeen 
hundred years. 

Returning from Pompeii to Naples, the traveller always goes 
directly to the museum vv^here the articles w^hich have been taken from 
the excavated cities are deposited. There he finds bread from the 
ovens, drugs from the shop of the apothecary, household articles, and 




STREET IN POMPEII. 



many a beautiful mosaic or fresco, on which he gazes with wonder at 
its perfection, after having been covered up for so many centuries. 

A description of Pompeii would not be complete without some- 
thing in relation to the mountain w^hich overwhelmed it. One of the 
most memorable days spent by the stranger in this region is that 
which takes him to the summit of Vesuvius. I may as well give my 
own experience, very briefly, in making the ascent. Some half dozen 
of us Americans started at midnight from Naples, designing to be upon 



IN ITALY. 



n2> 



the top at sunrise. Riding as far as Portici in carriages, we there 
exchanged that mode of conveyance for the backs of horses. At one 
we began to ascend very gradually, the road wide and winding, pass- 
ing along by cultivated fields and rich orchards; but as we ascended 
higher these evidences of fertility were exchanged for dreadful steril- 
ity and death. The beds of lava were spread out all around us, 
and the desolation became more dreary every moment. We passed 
b}' the Hermitage and the Observatory, up into the more bleak fields, 
where not a green spot nor a single vine appears to relieve the eye or 
detract from the desolate scene. There are some places, however, on 
the sides of the mountain, w^here grows a vine of the grape of 
which a wine is made called Lachryma Christie or the " Tears of 
Christ," which is said to be very delicious, and which is sold at a very 
high price. Up higher we ascended; our poor beasts picked out their 
way amid the fallen blocks of lava, now leaping across ravines, and 
then rubbing their sides against the torn and ragged masses, until the 
bridle became useless, and we gave ourselves up to the instincts of 
the animals on which we rode. About three hours after starting from 
Naples, we arrived at the base of the cone, and fastened our horses in 
the crater of an extinct volcano, or rather an older crater of the still 
trembling and fiery Vesuvius. And now commenced our toils. The 
cone is desperately steep, and we were obliged to clamber up over 
rough, rolling pieces of lava, which are set in motion as the foot 
treads upon them, and frequently three steps are taken backward 
where one is set forward. For a while, we toiled up the steep with- 
out assistance ; but, at length, v^e called to several men trained to the 
work, who started with us from the base of the cone, and who handed 
us leather thongs, one end of which was fastened to their own 
shoulders. Accustomed to climbing, they moved on rapidly, and 
gave us much assistance. The tedious work lasted an hour, when 
we found ourselves at the summit, and standing on the verge of the 
terrible crater, just as the sun arose in all its beauty, and poured a 



134 ^^^ ^^^ WINKLE'S TRAVELS. 

flood of golden light over the mountain and the surrounding 
scenery. 

At a distance, Vesuvius looks like a sugar-loaf, with a small, flat 
surface at the summit, from w^hich a cloud of smoke is continually 
ascending. On reaching the apex, we find that what appears to be a 
level plain is a tunnel-shaped crater, with its yawning mouth about 
one-third of a mile across, and verging to a conical point in the centre. 
The morning was a very fine one for our view, as we stood on the 
east side, and looked across the crater towards the west, which was 
considerably higher. The ground under our feet was hot, and little 
crevices were emitting steam and smoke. The beds of sulphur, 
spread out all around, look pleasingly fearful ; and the idea of the 
thin crust giving way, and letting the traveller down into the ever- 
churning vortex below, will enter the mind, and haunt it with forebod- 
ings of no very agreeable character. As we stood there on the verge 
of the crater, the deep below sent up its clouds of mist and steam, 
which now ascended toward heaven, and now hovering over the 
mountain, completely enveloped us in the sulphurous gases. We 
gazed down into the awful cavern from which has poured forth, in 
days agone, the desolating stream which has carried terror to defence- 
less homes and stricken hearts. The appearance of Vesuvius now is 
different from what it was when by it Pompeii was destroyed. It 
changes its form with every passing age, and spreads wider the 
barren covering upon the surrounding country. Strabo, in his 
time, speaks of the volcano as rising behind the beautiful cities 
on the shores of the sea, "well cultivated, and inhabited all around 
except its top, which was, for the most part, level, and entirely 
barren, ashy to the view, displaying cavernous hollows in cin- 
eritious rocks, which look as if they had been eaten in the fire, so 
that we may suppose this spot .to have been a volcano formerly, with 
burning craters, but extinguished for want of fuel." But all is now 
changed, and the beautiful cities are destroyed, and the pleasant villas 



IN ITALY. 



135 



seem to be retreating from the mountain as if afraid of its vol- 
canic fires. 

Travellers generally manage to be on the summit at sunrise, and 
there breakfast. We did so; and cooked our eggs in the little ovens 
in the ground, scratching out a little place with the end of a cane. 

It must be a wonderful sight to see that old mountain in one of its 
most fiery demonstrations. It must be worth a voyage to Italy to 




THE GATE OF HERCULANEUM, AND STREET OF TOMBS, POMPEII. 

gaze on this fountain of flame, blazing up to God, as if the earth itself 
was consuming. A writer in 1858, who saw the mount when in one 
of its troubled moods, says: — "It was a marvellous scene, that vast 
black valley, with its lake of fire at the bottom, its cone of fire on the 
top. The discharges were constant, and had something appalling in 
their sound. We were almost too much excited for observation. 
Now we looked at the cone of green and gold that sank and rose, 
faded and brightened, smoked or flamed; then at the seething lake; 



136 RIP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. 

then at the strange mountain of lava; then at the burning fissures that 
yawned around. There were yet some remnants of day; a gloomy 
twiHght, at least, revealed the jagged rim of the valley. Down we 
went, down, down, to the very edge of the boiling caldron of melted 
lava, that rolled its huge waves towards the black shore, waves whose 
foam and spray were fire and flame ! An eruption evidently was pre- 
paring, and soon, indeed, took place. We missed the sight; but what 
we saw was grand enough. A troop of heavy black clouds was hur- 
rying athwart the sky, showing the stars ever and anon between, ^ like 
a swarm of golden bees.' The wind roared and bellowed among the 
lava gullies, while the cone discharged its blocks of burning lava or 
its showers of red sparks, with a boom like that of a park of artillery." 

The view from the summit of Vesuvius is one of the most beauti- 
ful in the world. The city and bay of Naples, the broad, blue Med- 
iterranean Sea, the flowery enchantments of Italian scenery, fill up the 
vision. To stand on such a mountain, on the edge of that tremendous 
crater, marks the day in the history of a human life. 

You have, perhaps, seen pictures of the descent from Vesuvius. 
That is quite a different thing from the ascent. The ascent is over sharp 
stones, that roll as you tread upon them, and the climbing is slow^ and 
tedious. The descent is on the other side of the mountain, and in 
seven minutes is undone what takes an hour to do. The traveller, 
convulsed with laughter, throws himself into a bed of fine cinders, 
descending nearly ten feet at a leap, sinking in the soft, flowing ashes, 
as if it were light, drifting snow, raising a cloud of dust, and set- 
ting the yielding body in motion all around. 

How wonderful is this great system which God has made! In 
one place we see plains spread out in quiet beauty; then we see the 
immense masses of earth heaped together, and thrown into mountain 
ranges. Here we see rivers wending their way to the ocean, poetic as 
the Nile, historic as the Rhine, useful as the Thames, and beautiful as 
the Hudson; there we see the waters heaped up into liquid mountains 



IN ITALY. 137 

and tumbling down like Niagara. In one place we have beautiful 
Lake Leman, and the hundred-isled Adriatic; and in another oceans 
in the air are turned to glaciers that glisten among the Alpine for- 
tresses of crystal. But Vesuvius is different from them all. It is a 
monstrosity of nature. Man climbs its sides, and stands on the edge 
of its awful crater, with wonder and terror. It is so unlike every 
other object on which a human being can gaze, and so terrible, that he 
carries to the grave with him the acquaintance which he has formed 
with the rumbling, churning, smoking, storming pit, dov^n into which 
no traveller has descended and returned again to tell the story of its 
fiery mines, which age after age burn on, supplied with fuel from the 
hand of God, and fanned by revolving systems. 

And there they w^ill continue to burn as age after age rolls away, 
and from time to time will flow forth the tide of fire, which will pour 
itself down upon the beautiful plains below, causing the inhabitants to 
fly in terror from the homes which they have decorated, and the 
graves over which they have wept, to find shelter and repose in vil- 
lages beyond the reach of Vesuvius and its waves of ruin. 

When the Triangle had finished this account of Vesuvius they spent 
the evening, until a late hour, in discussing it, and Dr. Oldschool, who 
was a well-read man, gave them much information concerning vol- 
canoes and earthquakes, a subject which the letter had naturally sug- 
gested. An adjournment took place ; and at the next meeting con- 
tinued the narrative of the Master, as he approached the Eternal City. 

In the city of Rome centres a marvellous interest. It was the 
capital of great Caesar's Empire, it has had its long line of illustrious 
heroes, gifted orators, and celebrated artists. It is now the seat of 
one of the greatest religious systems that ever found place on earth. 
Here also are gathered wonderful treasures of art, and learning, and 
genius. Whatever is to be reverenced on account of its antiquity, 
is represented here, and few places on the globe can have more 
to attract a serious and thoughtful mind. 



138 RIP l^AN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. 

We reached Rome just at evening, crossing the Tiber by the 
Castle of St. Angelo, along the Corso, to a hotel where we were to 
stop during our stay. The city of Rome is built on seven hills: the 
Capitoline, on which stands the Capitol with its noble architecture and 
its commanding position; the Quirinal, still crowned by the noble 
ruins of the Temple of the Sun, built by Elagabalus, and beautified 
by the Colonna palace; the Palatine, on which Nero built his Golden 
House, the fame of the world, on the very spot where he had set fire 
to the city: the Esquiline, on which the Baths of Titus, an undis- 
tinguishable heap of ruins, lie shorn of their former beauty ; the Vimi- 
nal, which still bears up the remains of the splendid Baths of Diocle- 
tian, works reared by forty thousand Christians who toiled thereon, 
and where have been found bricks, on which, deep and indelible, 
is the mark of the cross, showing that even in their hateful slavery, 
the disciples did not forget their Lord, or the badge of their allegiance 
to him; the Aventine, on the eastern slope of which are the still 
almost perfect Baths of Caracalla, begun by him two hundred and two 
years after Christ, and finished by Alexander Severus some time 
afterward; the Cselian with its triumphal monuments, and its hoary 
ruins, — seven hills famous in poetry and song, each a theatre of 
wonders, and each bearing evidences of the genius and art that once 
abode upon them. 

The city naturally divides itself into the Rome of the Caesars and 
the Rome of the Popes. The stranger, standing on the summit of the 
Capitol, will see on one side of him old Rome, with its Forum, its 
arches, its pillars, and its ruins. On the other side he will see the 
living city, the masses of people, the modern buildings, and the 
Christian temples. Out on all sides, beyond these he will observe the 
desolate Campagna stretching away in the distance. Through the 
city and dividing it flows the Tiber, turbid and yellow, emblem of 
Rome herself. 

We will look first at the Rome of the Caesars — the city of the 



IN ITALY. 



139 



dead. We go first to the Roman Forum, a spot of ground raised 
about twenty feet, near the Capitoline. Once the resort of learning, the 
theatre of eloquence, the birthplace of liberty, it has degenerated into 
a place for the sale of cattle; and the confusion of tongues has taken 
the place of the eloquent strains of the orator. All around the Forum 
are the remains of the past: Temples in which the heathen gods were 
once worshipped, arches beneath which conquerors once rode, pillars 
erected to the memory of men whose deeds are now forgotten, and 
the remains of prisons, palaces, and other public edifices. These 
structures are now in ruins, though one may see that they were once 
very beautiful. Standing in the Forum one can cast his eye over 
the ruins of the Temple of Vespasian, of Castor and Pollux, of Rom- 
ulus, and several others; the Arch of Septimius Severus; the Column 
of Phocus, described by Byron as 

"The nameless column with a buried base;" 

the Arch of Titus, and several other ruins of great magnificence and 
renown. Not far distant he sees the Via Sacra, the famous walk of 
Horace, and the promenade of philosophers and orators, whose names 
the world has lost. Going out from the Forum to explore the city, the 
stranger will find ruins of all kinds. The Palace of the Caesars, the 
Golden House of Nero, tell us how the sovereigns of ancient Rome 
used to live. The walls that yet exist, though the decorations are 
gone; the patches of pavements set in marble or precious stones; 
the arches, though overgrown with ivy and cypress, and clothed and 
obstructed with rubbish, tell us that magnificence now unknown once 
abode in ancient Rome. 

The Baths were immense buildings that still remain to tell of im- 
perial luxury. The Baths of Agrippa cover an area of three hundred 
and fifty thousand square feet, those of Caracalla cover an area of 
three hundred and twenty thousand square feet, while those of Con- 
stantine, Diocletian, and others were still more extensive. These baths 



140 



RIP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. 



show US how extensive and magnificent were the works of this ancient 
city, and give us an idea of the wealth which was lavished on every- 
thing. 

The remains of circus and amphitheatre are very numerous. Fore- 
most in the list stands the Coliseum. Erected for gladiatorial shows 
within fifty years after the death of Christ, it was afterwards used for 
the slaughter of Christians by wild beasts. The structure is now 
crumbling to pieces. For eighteen centuries it has stood, one of the 
chief monuments of Rome. The arena is two hundred and eighty- 
seven feet long, and one hundred and eighty feet wide; from the arena 
the seats rise tier on tier, one hundred and fifty feet. The immense 
size of the building may be gathered from the fact that eighty-seven 
thousand persons could be seated, while in the arena one hundred 
men, and a like number of wild beasts, could fight at once, and have 
sufficient room. In the Middle Ages it was used for a fortress, and 
the Roman princes have despoiled it of its beauties by taking away its 
ornaments to decorate their own palaces. The exterior view of the 
structure presents us with four stories, composed of arches, piers, and 
columns, with windows and doors. The lower story is of the Doric 
order; the second of the Ionic order; the third of the Corinthian; the 
fourth also is Corinthian. Beneath the structure, under the seats, is a 
vast number of cells, where the beasts who fought in the arena were 
kept. The building is now used occasionally for religious worship. 
A huge wooden cross stands in the centre, and any person going up to 
it and imprinting upon it a kiss, is promised an indulgence of two 
hundred days. This is a very fortunate arrangement for those poor 
sinners who believe in the power of men to grant indulgences, and 
who wish, while on a visit to Rome, to indulge in an unusual number 
of sins. 

The time to visit the Coliseum is by moonlight, when the pale 
beams come struoforlinor throup:h the broken arches. This was the 
time when Byron used to go and catch inspiration from the scene, and 



142 



R[P VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. 



Others who have followed his example have felt the same emotions of 
awe and grandeur as they have stood at midnight in the arena once 
wet with blood, now guarded by a peaceful cross, and looked upon the 
ruined corridors, black frowning pillars, gloomy, cavernous arches, 
and remembered what scenes had there transpired, since Christian blood 
was used to cement the mortar in the walls, to this hour, when murder 
and crime have ceased their empire here, and beggary and scepticism 
have taken the place of blood and groans. 

The Anglo-Saxon pilgrims who gazed upon the Amphitheatre in the 
Middle Ages, perfect then after ages of change, predicted for it an 
immortality: — 

" While stands the Coliseum, Rome shall stand ; 
When falls the Coliseum, Rome shall fall ; 
And when Rome falls, the world. " 

Who can say this prediction will not prove true, for Rome is reel- 
ing, decaying, falling as the Coliseum is crumbling, and who knows 
that they both may not behold the 

" Wreck of matter and the crush of worlds. " 

The Theatre ofPompey dates back further than the Coliseum, but 
is not in so good a state of preservation; indeed the Palazzo Pio is built 
over the ruins, concealing a part of them. The descriptions of this 
edifice show that it must have been a grand and noble work of art. 
It was built by Pompe}^, but the people having charged him with using 
it to corrupt the morals of Rome, he erected against it a temple to 
Venus Victrix, and thus set his worship of the gods against the injury 
he was doing to public morals. Near this theatre stood the Senate- 
house, where Caesar fell, smitten by Brutus whom he had befriended, 
and whose death poets and orators have used to point their eloquence 
and inspire their address. These amphitheatres are found all through 
Rome, and their ruins attest their ancient greatness and grandeur. 
The Theatre of Balbus, though the smallest that still retains its form, 
would hold eleven thousand five hundred persons. The Theatre of 



IN ITALY. 



^\2> 



Marcellns would hold thirty thousand people. In the Circus Maxi- 
mus nearly two hundred thousand persons could be convened, and 
were accommodated with seats. The Circus of Roniulus presents a 
ground plan of fifteen hundred and eighty feet in length, and two hun- 
dred and sixty feet in breadth, and an immense number of persons 
could have been accommodated within its walls. Of course the 
ruins are now, many of them, but little more than heaps of rubbish 
and stone, but enough remains to mark the spots, and show us what 
these structures were when the warlike Romans, with their wives and 
daughters, assembled within their walls. 

The columns that remain standing also have histories, and teach 
useful lessons to every stranger. The Column of Phocus has been 
referred to. For a long time no one could tell what event it was 
erected to commemorate, or the deeds of what sage, poet or hero it 
was designed to perpetuate. You remember that Byron alludes to it 
thus : 

" Tully was not so eloquent as thou, 
Thou nameless column with a buried base." 

The " buried base " has been relieved of rubbish, and the column has 
found a name and a history. It is a Corinthian shaft, resting on a sub- 
stantial pedestal, and was erected in 608. 

The Column of Trajan, erected in 114, a mixture of Tuscan, Doric, 
and Corinthian, covered with bass-reliefs, the top of which is reached 
by a flight of one hundred and eighty-five steps, is one of the finest 
of the remains of the past. The ancients were accustomed to record 
their victories on these monuments; and all over the base of the Tra- 
jan Column are beautiful carvings representing several important bat- 
tles and other historical events. Once the colossal statue of Trajan 
stood on the top of the tall shaft. In his hand was a golden orb, 
which contained his ashes after he was dead. 

But long since the imperial image passed away, and since then 
other forms have been placed there, also to disappear. Other col- 



144 ^^^ ^^^' WINKLE'S TRAVELS. 

umns rise amid these ruins, each with its memorable history. The 
Cohimn of DuiHiis, to commemorate his victories over the Cartha- 
ginians; of Antoninus Pius, which once, in its rich, quaint massive- 
ness, won the attention of all; that of Marcus Aurelius, with its his- 
torical emblems, and now surmounted with a statue of St. Paul, and 
others of note, some cast down, some standing erect, speak of great 
Rome, her mighty past, and her sad decline. 

The arches, many of which still stand, give evidence of great 
taste on the part of those who reared them. The Arch of Drusus, 
on the famous old Appian Way, now overgrown with ivy; the Arch 
of Septimius Severus, erected by goldsmiths and bankers, to a family 
of their craft, profusely ornamented and elaborately carved; the Arch 
of Titus, a grand monument of the conquest of Jerusalem and the 
complete overthrow of the Jews, bearing inscriptions and covered 
with bass-reliefs emblematic of scenes in that bloody reign, when 
God put to the lips of the Jewish nation a cup of blood; the Arch 
of Constantine, composed of fragments of one more ancient, covered 
with beautiful carvings and rich designs, a history in itself of an 
empire's glory and renown. All these are monuments of the former 
magnificence of this city, which now lies a heap of stones and mounds 
of earth. As we go groping about amid these ruins, we cross and 
recross the renowned Appian Way, a broad road which led through 
the city, the pride of the ancient Romans. The pavement was of 
marble, or volcanic stones, and was very beautiful. The houses 
which were erected near it were costly, and some of the most 
noted tombs are now ranged alongside of it. The ancients were 
accustomed to build their tombs above the ground, and many of 
them were afterward used for fortifications. On this Via Appia stands 
the tomb of Caecelia Metella. Nineteen hundred years ago, before 
Christ appeared in Bethlehem, this structure rose, a circular tower 
nearly one hundred feet high; and to-day, when its history is almost 
forgotten, and even the people who live at its base do not know 



I 



IN ITALY. 



145 



its name, or who Caecelia Metella was, it seems about as perfect as 
ever. When the memory of the illustrious woman who first reposed 
in it had passed away, it was used as a fortress, and again and again 
has withstood the furious assaults of war. The tomb of this renowned 
woman is immortalized in " Childe Harold": 

" There is a stern round tower of other days, 
Firm as a fortress, with its fence of stone, 
Such as an army's baffled strength delays, 
Standing with half its battlements alone, 
And with two thousand years of ivy grown, 
The garland of eternity, where wave 
The green leaves over all by time o'erthrown ; — 
What was this tower of strength ? within its cave 
What treasure lay so locked, so hid ? — A woman's grave. 

" But who was she, the lady of the dead, 

Tomb'd in a palace ? Was she chaste and fair ? 

Worthy a king's — or more — a Roman's bed ? 

What race of chiefs and heroes did she bear ? 

What daughter of her beauties was the heir ? 

How lived — how loved — how died she ? Was she not 

So honor'd — and conspicuously there. 

Where meaner relics must not dare to rot. 
Placed to commemorate a more than mortal lot ? 

" Perchance she died in youth : it may be, bow'd 

With woes far heavier than the ponderous tomb 

That weighed upon her gentle dust, a cloud 

Might gather o'er her beauty, and a gloom 

In her dark eye, prophetic of the doom 

Heaven gives its favorites — early death ; yet shed 

A sunset charm around her, and illume 

With hectic light, the Hesperus of the dead, 
Of her consuming cheek the autumnal leaf-like red. 

" Perchance she died in age — surviving all, 

Charms, kindred, children — with the silver-gray 

On her long tresses, which might yet recall, 

It may be, still a something of the day 

When they were braided, and her proud array 

And lovely form were envied, praised, and eyed 

By Rome — but whither would Conjecture stray? 

Thus much alone we know — Metella died, 
The wealthiest Roman's wife : Behold his love or pride ! " 



1^6 RIP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. 

The tomb of Publius is yet a massive building, and more than 
eighteen hundred years old, and seems likely to behold the rise and 
fall of generations more. The tomb of the Baker, one of the most 
singular of all the sepulchres of Rome, about fifteen hundred years old, 
and covered with emblems illustrative of the baker's business: rows 
of stones, representing loaves of bread, bass-reliefs of the different 
processes of bread-making, effigies of the baker and his wife selling 
bread, and all the various designs of the bakers' trade. The tomb of 
Augustus, built before Christ's time, was two hundred and twenty feet 
in diameter, but is now in ruins, and its former glory can hardly be 
discovered. 

And so all through ancient Rome you find vast piles, erected for 
the repose of the dead, now converted into fortresses and military 
arsenals. Even the Fortress of St. Angelo, a castle holding the same 
relation to Rome that the Tower does to London, and the Bastile 
once did to Paris, was formerly the tomb of Hadrian. It is an 
immense building, having provisions for a large garrison, cells for 
one hundred and fifty prisoners, and the various equipments for the 
defence of the city. 

While among these ruins one naturally inquires for the Tarpeian 
Rock, so famous in Rome's history. This rock is on the southern 
side of the Capitoline, and is not so much of a precipice as when the 
traitors were made to leap from its summit, and dash themselves to 
pieces on the stones below. The descent is about seventy' feet, and 
it was sure death to him who was forced to leap from it. 

Near the Tarpeian Rock is the famous Mamertine prison, where 
the Apostle Paul was confined previous to his martyrdom. There 
are two chambers hewn out of the rock, both of them beneath the 
ground. A flight of twenty-eight steps leads us doAvn into the upper 
prison, a room about thirty feet by twenty-five. The lower prison 
is smaller, and is called the Tullian prison. In this cell is a stone 
pillar to which the Apostle was chained, and here have been perpe- 



148 



RIP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. 



trated some of the vilest cruelties against humanity. A little door 
leads from this prison into the dark catacombs which extend in all 
directions under the city. I had a curiosit}- to explore these dark 
abodes, and taking a torch I went into the passage. My friends, to 
startle me, threw back the door behind me, and it closed with a dull, 




IN THE FORUM LOOKING TOWARD THE CAPITOL. 



heavy sound which grated terribly on the nerves. Scarcely had I 
taken a step forward when my torch, striking against a jutting rock, 
was extinguished. The feeling of that moment I can hardly describe. 
There was a sense of loneliness, a dismal foreboding which made the 
moment I stayed there absolutely awful. The slime and mud was thick 
and gluey beneath my feet; now and then I could feel the loathsome 



IN ITALY. 



149 



lizard as he sprang against my person; I scarcely dared to move lest 
in those winding passages I should be lost, and unable to find the 
door, and though I was not foolish enough to make any outcry, I was 
inexpressibly glad when my fi-iends opened the door and let the glare 
of their torches show me the way back to them. 




THE MAMERTINE PRISON. 

It was my privilege to explore the catacombs from another point, 
and to become better acquainted with those regions of darkness. 
These vaults, which underlie the whole city of Rome, were doubtless 
excavations made to secure the stone for building purposes; the 
excavations having been made they were used for burial-grounds, and 
in niches all along the subterranean passages may be found the ashes 
of the forgotten dead. When persecution spread its wings over the 



150 RIP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. 

Eternal City, the early Christians fled to these retreats, and the perse- 
cutors, on account perhaps of the narrowness of the passages, which 
enabled a few persons to hold out against great numbers, and perhaps 
on account of superstitious reverence for the dwelling-place of the 
dead, did not follow them. There those holy people chanted their 
sacred anthems, and there did they commune with each other and with 
God. The catacombs have been despoiled of many of their inscrip- 
tions and relics, which have been placed in the Vatican, and these 
subterranean abodes are the haunts of thieves and outcasts. We 
entered some distance, and were content. 

The best preserved monument of ancient Rome is the Pantheon, 
which, though built before the time of Christ, is in better condition 
than some stone churches in England and America which have not 
been erected two hundred years. It has been in turn devoted to idols 
and to God, to Jove and to Jesus; and now every day here within its 
walls is heard the chant of the priest and the song of the mourner. But 
I have spent as much time as I can afford on the ruins of Rome, and 
yet much more remains to be said. The temples of Bacchus, of Con- 
cord, of Juno Matuta, of Minerva, of Mars, and many others, all 
renowned, yet stand; the gates, the bridges, the pyramid of Caius 
Cestus, and many other objects of interest, all make a dozen letters 
necessary to give an idea of what they are; but we must pass over 
them, and leave this old dead city for one of life and activity. 

Looking down from the Capitol, the best view of the new city of 
Rome, or that part which is still inhabited, is obtained. The Capitol 
stands on the Capitoline hill, and I remember one day clinging to 
its tower, and with my arm wound around the colossal image on its 
summit, looking off" upon the city, as it lay before my eyes. The 
Corso black with human life, the Tiber flowing through the city, the 
old castle of St. Angelo, with the French flag floating over it, St. 
Peter's Church, the noblest in the world, were all full in view. St. 
John Lateran, the mother of churches, lifting up its front, the 



IN ITALY. 



151 



Vatican, the Inquisition House, and the various places of interest were 
taken in at a single glance. Until the conquest of Victor Emanuel, 
Rome had the worst government in the world. The pope was the 
supreme head of the civil and religious power; the cardinals, seventy- 
two in number, constitute a sacred college, and there were minor 
municipal officers, whose powers all emanate directly or indirectly 
from the sovereign head. The population of the city is about two 
hundred and seventy-five thousand persons: of this number ten 
thousand are Jews, sixteen hundred peasants, two thousand five hun- 
dred monks, two thousand nuns, with man}^ other useless characters. 
The streets are full of beggars of the lowest and most despicable 
description, and one tires of their ceaseless plea for aid. 

Our time is so limited that we shall only be able to skip from place 
to place in the city, noticing the things which are most peculiar and 
interesting. And the first object of interest is St. Peter's, a wonderful 
edifice, the fame of which is as extensive as that of Rome herself. 
A religious house was built on this spot as early as A. D. 90, but the 
great edifice was not commenced in earnest until 1506, when Julius II. 
entered upon it with great vigor, and it was completed in 1590, or 
eighty-four years after its foundations were laid. But changes were 
constantly made, and additions built, that lead historians to give the 
time of building as one hundred and seventy-six years, and still further 
we find that the building was not completed until three hundred years 
after its commencement, though the massive edifice was completed in 
less than one century. The cost of the building one hundred years 
ago had reached the enormous sum of sixty million dollars, and the 
mere repairs annually amount to more than thirty thousand dollars. 
The buildings cover two hundred and forty thousand square feet, and 
are monstrous in their extent. The workmen who are emplo3^ed 
to repair the edifice have cottages on the roof, and live there with 
their families, and the latter seldom come down into the world below. 
The exterior of St. Peter's is well known. There are so many 



152 RIP VAN WINKLE 'S TRA VELS. 

pictures of it, that I need give no description. The semicircular 
colonnades, composed of two hundred and eighty immense columns, 
enclosing an area which is beautifully ornamented; the facade from 
plans of Carlo Moderno, concealing the front of the building; the 
dome towering up towards the clouds, are all so familiar that I waste 
no time on them. The effect on entering the church is wonderful: 
you are struck with solemn awe, and yet when asked to say what so 
overwhelms you, you can hardly tell. You may recollect that Byron, 
in Childe Harold, in speaking of this church, after saying that 



bids us 



" Power, glory, strength, and beauty — all are aisled 
In this eternal ark of worship undefiled," 

" Enter; its grandeur overwhelms thee not : 

And why ? It is not lessened : but the mind, 
Expanded by the genius of the spot, 

Has grown colossal, and can only find 
A fit abode, wherein appear enshrined, 

Thy hopes of immortality." 

The immense size of the cathedral does not at once strike the 
mind; it grows upon us. It measures in length six hundred and eight 
feet; the height of the nave is one hundred and fifty feet; the length 
of the transept is four hundred and fifty feet; the height of the dome, 
from the pavement to the summit, inside, is four hundred and five, 
and from the pavement to the top of the cross, outside, is four hun- 
dred and thirty-five feet. Several churches as large as the average 
could be dragged about inside, and the steeple of the Trinity Church 
with Grace Church on top of it, could stand beneath the dome. 

The high altar stands directly beneath the dome. This high altar 
is a most expensive thing, and stands, we are told, directly over the 
grave of St. Peter. The expense of the altar may be judged from the 
canopy over it, of solid bronze, the most inexpensive part of the 
whole, being cast by Bernini from bronze stolen from the noble Pan- 
theon in 1633, which cost one hundred and ten thousand dollars. It 




il'I'l I 



154 



RIP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. 



was at this high altar that I saw the pope, the successor of St. Peter. 
I was there on Corpus Christi day, when in grand procession the 
pontiff rode upon the shoulders of men. The procession was com- 
posed of priests, monks and other church dignitaries, and in the 
midst of them his Holiness, as the Catholics call him, was seated 
in a chair, with a canopy over his head, and borne by eight or ten 
distinguished personages. The chanting multitude passed through 
the cathedral, down the colonnade, and out into the city. The pope 
held a cross in his hand, and had all the appearance of being a little 
seasick. 

St. Peter's Church contains many fine statues and paintings, and 
many elaborate chapels. Here, monarchs, popes, and cardinals have 
been buried in solemn state, and hours might be spent in the descrip- 
tion of their sepulchres. 

I ascended the dome, by a stone-paved staircase between the dome 
and its inside lining. This staircase is so gradual in its ascent that 
horses have been used to conve}^ up the visitors. On the roof we 
find the houses of the w^orkmen, the shops in full operation, a fountain 
of water playing in the sun, and various signs of life and animation. 
Weary and faint we reach the ball, which is large enough to hold six- 
teen persons. From that point the view is ver}^ fine indeed. Before us 
is the city, full of life; out beyond are the ruins of old Rome, and still 
beyond, stretching out in every direction, is the wide, dreary Campagna, 
limited by the Apennines and the blue Mediterranean. Once a year, 
during the Holy Week, this cathedral is illuminated, and probably such 
a display can be found no where else on earth. The illumination 
takes place three nights in succession. Several hundred men are 
employed to light the lights, which are hung all over the dome and 
on the front of the immense building. The first part of the illumina- 
tion is called the silver illumination, the lights being concealed in 
screens of white paper. There they hang, making the cathedral look 
as if it were a vast orb of silver flashing on the night. At nine 







THE 



POPE GIVING THE BENEDICTION ON PALM SUNDAY. 



1^6 RIP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. 

o'clock the golden illumination begins. A thousand broad lamps 
flash out instantaneously; others follow by hundreds, until the cathedral 
seems in a perfect blaze. The lamps used for the golden illumina- 
tion are iron vessels filled with pitch and tar; and about seven thou- 
sand of them are used, and they burn -until midnight. 

From St. Peter's we go to the Church of St. John Lateran. The 
chapter of this cathedral takes precedence of St. Peter's, and the 
papal coronations are held here. When a pope dies the cardinals 
assemble, close the doors, and proceed to the election of his succes- 
sor. Sometimes several days are spent in vain. The people know 
the room in which the election takes place, and wait uneasil}^ to know 
the result. When a choice is made the ballots are all taken and 
thrown into the grate and set on fire; and the smoke which issues 
from the chimney is the first intelligence the people have that a pope 
has been chosen. An official then comes forth to the city and pro- 
claims that the choice has been made, and announces the name of the 
favored one. The coronation always takes place in St. John Lateran, 
and is very imposing. Five general councils have been held here, 
and within these walls decisions have been reached which have 
shaken the world. In this church is the famous baptistery in which 
Rienzi bathed on the night before his death. It is believed that in 
this baptistery Constantine was baptized. 

Rome is full of churches and cathedrals,/abd all of them are 
famous for some particular things. In most of them are relics, the 
bones of saints, and other senseless things. The church of S. Maria 
della Concezione (church of the Capucines), has in the vaults beneath 
a quantity of holy soil, brought from Jerusalem. When the monks 
die, they are buried here awhile, and then their bones are taken up, 
scraped, prepared, and clothed with their former habits, and thus they 
remain awhile, when they are taken to pieces and the bones piled 
together, skulls in one place, and other bones elsewhere. Figures, 
formed of bones, are on the walls. Crosses of bones are on the ceil- 



I 7 



I /' 



V , /' 



O 

> 
o 

; 




4.^ 



^ life ^ 



158 RIP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. 

ings. A few skeletons are standing around uncovered, and the whole 
place is abhorrent to the feelings and disgusting to the senses. 

In one church 3^ou will find pieces of the true cross, in another the 
napkin with which the blood was wiped from the fainting brow of 
Christ as he went to the cross. One of the most noted relics at 
Rome is the Scala Santa, or Holy Staircase. The story runs that this 
staircase was the identical one over which Christ went into the judg- 
ment hall of Pontius Pilate. There are twenty-eight steps of marble, 
and no one is allowed to ascend them except on his knees. The com- 
plete conversion of Martin Luther took place when he was ascending 
on his knees these stairs. The consciousness of the folly of the whole 
scene came upon him, and he arose and strode away repeating, " The 
just shall live by faith." About half-way up these stairs is a spot 
on the marble that looks like blood, and the monks say that this 
stain is the blood of Jesus, he having paused as he went out of 
the hall, and cast back a reproachful look at the cowardly governor 
who had condemned him. These may be the stones of that judg- 
ment hall. The thing is in no wise impossible, and many persons 
who repudiate the superstitions of the papal church believe this 
statement. 

Near the Cathedral of St. Peter stands the Vatican, the palace of 
the pope. This building existed one thousand years ago, and has 
received additions and improvements until it is a vast, irregular, 
unsightly structure; but forming one of the most gorgeous palaces in 
the world. It is eleven hundred and fifty-one feet long, and seven 
hundred and sixty-eight feet broad. It has eight grand staircases, and 
two hundred of less dimensions; twenty-two courts admit air and 
light; and four thousand four hundred and twenty apartments com- 
pose the interior of the building. What it cost no one can tell, and 
its present value scarcely any one could estimate. Within the palace 
is the famous Sistine chapel, where mass is said by the pope, and 
where the papal throne stands. It is in this chapel that the visitor sees 



IN ITALY. 159 

the grandest fresco in the world — the Last Judgment, of Michel Angelo, 
sixty feet by thirty, grand in its conception, noble in its design, and 
faultless in its execution. The joy of the righteous, the sorrow of 
the lost, the groups of figures, the awful throne, the Great Judge, are 
all admirably represented, and awe impresses one as he gazes on this 
sublime work of art. 

But you know that the Vatican is famous not merely as the abode 
of the pope, and the place where priestly conclaves are held, but as a 
vast receptacle of works of genius. The collections of paintings, the 
galleries of sculpture, the halls of art, are the finest in the world. In 
this short letter I hardly dare say anything about them. They are so 
vast and indescribable that no justice could be done them, nor could 
I give you an intelligible idea of them. There is Raphael's Transfig- 
uration, which was hung over his corpse, to be worshipped as a thing 
divine. Multitudes come to see it, and, 

" Entering in, they looked, 
Now on the dead, then on that masterpiece ; 
Now on his face, lifeless and colorless. 
Then on those forms divine, that Hved and breathed, 
And would live on for ages." 

Here too is Domenichino's Communion of St. Jerome, and many 
others of the noblest taste, and executed in the highest style of art. 

The galleries of sculpture are as rich as the collections of paint- 
ings. The cabinets of coin, medals, and all the vast variety of things, 
peculiar to such a collection, are of great value. Here is the Lao- 
coon, a specimen of sculpture called by Michel Angelo " the wonder 
of art," and which Pliny declared to be " a work superior to all others, 
both in painting and statuary." The position of the giant Laocoon 
and his children, in the folds of the serpent, the despair and anguish 
depicted on the face of the father, and the touching expressions of the 
children, have been so often described in sober prose, melodious poe- 
try, and striking paintings and drawings, that no effort of description 



l6o RIP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. 

is needed. The piece of statuary forms, perhaps, the most renowned 
expression of 

"A father's love, and mortal agony, 
With an immortal patience blending." 

We also find here the Apollo Belvedere, another of the finest 
specimens of ancient sculpture, which the artists of our time in vain 
endeavor to imitate. Here, too, we find the Genius of the Vati- 
can, and the Sleeping Cleopatra, which have been made immortal b}- 
the finest of the poet's lays. Days, weeks, years may be spent in 
these vast halls, amid Egyptian wonders and Persian splendors, con- 
versing with the masters of the fine arts, with Michel Angelo, Prax- 
iteles, Raphael, Sacchini, Titian, and a host of others. 

But the wonder of the building to me was the library, the richest 
collection of books and manuscripts in the world, different popes hav- 
ing added to it since its foundation in the fourteenth century. The 
printed books, not large in number, only fifty thousand, do not form 
the richest or most valuable part of the collection, though these alone, 
from the rareness of the works, would make the collection the most 
valuable on earth. The librar}^ derives its value from its six hundred 
Hebrew, seven hundred and fifty Arabic, and four hundred and sixty 
Syriac manuscripts, and from a vast number of others in the Coptic, 
Ethiopic, Turkish, Persian, Sarmatian, Sclavonic, Armenian, and Chi- 
nese. There is here -a Bible of the sixth century, and other manu- 
scripts going back to the third and fourth centuries. The value of 
some of these manuscripts is very great, and many of them have no 
duplicates in the world. 

There are many other public and private palaces in Rome, all of 
which are, to a greater or less extent, open to the public, and which 
are filled with works of art, libraries, and other valuable things. All 
of these are noted in the history of the Eternal City, and some of them 
have been baptized in blood. 

Near St. Peter's Church stands the Palace of the Inquisition, 



IN ITALY. l6l 

used yet as a religious prison for monks who have been accused of 
heresy, and priests who have abandoned their faith. What dark 
deeds transpired in this house of woe none can tell, and probably it 
will be long ere its blood-stained passages will reveal their mysteries. 
The Capitol I have already referred to. It is a grand structure, on 
the Capitoline Hill, and is the State House of Rome. Besides being 
a public edifice for the transaction of business, it has extensive gal- 
leries of art, which in some respects rival those of the Vatican. 
Here is the famous nursing wolf, 

•' The thunder-stricken nurse of Rome, 
Scorched by the Roman Jove's ethereal dart," 

emblem of the humble agent that nurtured the life of Romulus. She 
has in turn been celebrated by Dionysius, Livy, Cicero, and Byron, 
as the 

" Mother of the mighty heart." 

And here, too, we find the Dying Gladiator, which has been ad- 
mired by critics from Pliny to John Bell, the latter of whom describes 
the statue as "all nature, all feeling," which has been immortalized in 
song and poetry for hundreds of years. 

Among the objects of interest to a stranger in Rome, is the Eng- 
lish burial-ground, near the pyramid of Caius Cestus, just by the Porta 
San Paolo. Everywhere else in Rome the traveller sees strange 
names, but when he reaches this spot he sees familiar names and epi- 
taphs written in his own language. Everything is quiet, and the place 
seems like a little sanctuary saved from the pollutions and superstitions 
of that great city. Here lies Percy Bysshe Shelley, the freethinker, 
who made his own life and that of his friends wretched, and who, per- 
sisting in his atheism until death, as if to do all he could to defeat a 
resurrection, ordered his body burnt, and his ashes scattered. Lord 
Byron and Leigh Hunt did the work, and the poor flesh was 
consumed, leaving the heart unburnt. The heart and ashes were 



1 62 RIP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. 

entombed here, and the "Cor Cordium" — heart of hearts — attracts 
the gaze of the stranger as he approaches the spot. That is true 
which they wrote on the tomb as to his earthly works, — true of his 
fate, though he denied it while alive: — 

" Nothing of him that doth fade, 
But doth suffer a sea change 
Into something rich and strange." 

Shelley was first wrecked, then burnt, then buried, but God can find 
his dust. 

Richard Wyatt is buried in these grounds. John Bell slumbers 
here. John Keats, who anticipated literary fame and pure happiness 
in the walks of a virtuous literature, and who died broken-hearted, 
rests here beneath the soil, and on his tomb is this inscription: "This 
grave contains all that was mortal of a young English poet, who, on 
his death-bed, in the bitterness of his heart at the malicious power of 
his enemies, desired these words to be engraven on his tombstone, — 
* Here lies one whose name is writ in water.' " 

This graveyard is filled up with those who have gone on excur- 
sions of pleasure, or on pilgrimages of piety, or to recover failing 
health, or to search for genius amidst the classic scenes of Italy, but 
who, instead of finding pleasure, health, or fame, have laid their bones 
to rest beneath the soil of a strange land. 

The impressions of a stranger in Rome are most sad and sorrow- 
ful. If he comes here in the summer, he will see a desolate city, the 
buildings dull and dingy, the streets filled with filthy beggars, and the 
pall of death hanging over everything. Nothing but a few religious 
observances, such as that of Corpus Christi day, will relieve the mo- 
notony of the scene, and as he floats down the Tiber, goes into St. 
Angelo, or St. Peter's, or walks languidly along the Corso, he will feel 
that he is in a city under a curse. The very breath he draws seems 
to come hard from his laboring lungs, and though everything he sees 
is invested with interest, yet he leaves Rome with a sort of feeling that 




CASTLE OF SAN ELMO. 



164 ^^IP ^A-^' WINKLE'S TRAVELS. 

one experiences when, after he has walked through the wards of 
a prison, and seen the handcuffs, the cells, the closed windows, he 
goes out and stands in the free air, and beneath the clear sunlight. 

If one goes to Rome in the winter, he finds a city occupied by 
crowds of strangers, and strangely blending religious observances with 
the most depraved and senseless dissipation. The religious observ- 
ances are very funny specimens of religion, such as washing 
pilgrims' feet, a dozen men riding the pope on their shoulders, can- 
dles, and crosses, and penances, all mingled up in one confused mass. 

The feet-washing scene occurs in Holy Week, and the cardinals 
wash the feet of the pilgrims who come here to worship. These 
pilgrims sit in rows, each with a bowl of water under his feet. And 
the cardinals and other high officials who are accustomed to ride in 
carriages, and dwell in state, who at any other time would kick the 
very same lazy beggars from their path without ceremony, are 
seen passing from one to another, scrubbing the dirt which had 
been collecting a year, from the feet which are thrust into the bowls. 
J. T. Headley, when he saw this operation, says that there were sev- 
eral dirty, filthy Roman boys who had come in to get washed, and one 
of them attracted his attention. He was half frightened and half 
roguish, and between the curious gaze of the spectators, the odd 
position he was in, and the cardinal in his awful robes at his feet, his 
countenance had a half-scared and half-comic look, and his eye rolled 
from the cardinal to the spectators, and back again, in queer bewilder- 
ment. This senseless and disgusting peirformance can hardly be 
pleasant to those who do the washing, however gratifying it ma}^ be 
to those whose feet are washed. If I was going to do the washing, I 
should wish to do it with a brush, on the end of a ten-foot pole. 

The Carnival in Rome is always celebrated with a great deal of 
foolish merriment and nonsense. The city during the period resem- 
bles almost anything else than a religious place. The ceremo- 
nies consist of masquerades, balls, theatricals, midnight revels, 



IN ITALY. 165 

and all sorts of dissipation. On the few last days of the Carnival, the 
people all turn out, and with masks and in various disguises are 
found in the street. All kinds of dress are put on, all kinds of hats are 
worn, and all turn to pelting each other with confectionery, paper- 
flowers and other such harmless missiles. People at the windows 
pelt those in the streets; those in the carriages pelt those in the win- 
dows, and ever}^ madcap fancy is carried out. When night comes the 
scene changes. All these thousands of people are provided with 
curious-colored, fantastic torches and lanterns, and the game consists 
in each one keeping his own light burning, and extinguishing that of 
his neighbor. Noblemen and beggars engage in the rush. Royal 
ladies, queenly dames, unbend, and in the wild rush of the crowd are 
as eager to cut up some new prank as are little children. A horse- 
race closes up the whole. It is not such a horse-race as we have at 
home and in England, but the horses are painted, and let loose in the 
Corso, and without riders, go dashing onward, plunging through a 
paper screen stretched across one end of the street. 

The Roman Catholic religion is seen at Rome in all its greatness 
and splendor. We only have side views of it in our country. Here 
is its seat and centre. The gorgeous carriages of the cardinals are 
seen dashing through the streets; the monks, Benedictines, Francis- 
cans, Dominicans, white, black and gray friars are seen all over the 
city. And a set of ignoble-looking creatures they are. They have on 
a coarse habit, which flaps about their naked legs, as if it was inhab- 
ited by a skeleton, their heads are always bare, and are shaved in 
various ways, and they move about with beads and crosses hung to the 
leathern girdle which they wear. Some of them are men of much 
learning, having little else to do than study. But dressed and shaven 
as they are, they all look like idiots or knaves. Convents and religious 
houses are all over the city, in which the nuns and monks dwell, pr?^^- 
tising the rites of the church to which they belong. 

All around, the people give evidence of the rule under which 



1 66 RIP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. 

they are. The wealthy people of Rome are generally very wealthy. 
They are composed very largely of extensive landholders in the vicin- 
ity, who build rich residences in the city, and draw their revenues 
from the country round about. Some of these landholders own two 
hundred thousand acres each of rich land, highly productive, and 
under a high state of cultivation. This is all let out in small farms, at 
enormous rents. There is scarcely any middle-class between these 
wealthy landholders and the humble and half-starved poor. The 
former class are treading on the necks of the latter. There is no 
city in the world where so many people live without work as in 
Rome. The monks do not work; the landholders do not work; the 
city officials do not work; the beggars do not work; the Jews do not 
work; and we were puzzled to find anybody that did. The climate 
is conducive to indolent habits, and the very breezes that fan your 
temples seem to be lazy and indolent in their movements. 

The churches of Rome are very rich in their construction and 
adornments, and should a small part of the mone}^ expended on them 
be given to the poor, or laid out in public improvements, we should 
soon see a mighty change in Rome. One mean little newspaper, the 
contents of which are a few columns of papal news, bulls, and adver- 
tisements, is all we have seen here in the line of literature. No im- 
provements appear in the city; no signs of public spirit are seen in 
an}/ direction. But the churches are gorgeous, and barefooted men 
and bonnetless women sit under arches and lean against pillars which 
have cost thousands of dollars to rear them. To show the needless 
expenditure, I may notice a few facts in relation to some of these 
churches. There prevails an idea that in 251 the body of St. Paul 
was removed from the Vatican and buried out on the Campagna, 
some one or two miles out on the road to Ostia. So this church, 
which has its millions of paupers, erected a church over the spot. So 
dreadful was the malaria that no habitation could be seen near the 
place, and in certain seasons the spot could be visited only at the risk 



IN ITALY. 167 

of life. But the church went up; not a neat, small monumental pile; 
but a huge edifice, four hundred and eleven feet long, the roof of 
which was supported by one hundred and thirty-eight beautiful mar- 
ble columns, and all the details of which were carried out in almost 
unequalled splendor. This structure was destroyed by fire, so that the 
walls were rendered useless and were taken down, and Rome, which 
keeps the epistles of Paul from the dying people, at once set herself to 
build a new church, of still greater beauty, over the Apostle's grave. 
In 1825 (more than a half of a century ago) the new church was 
commenced, and it is yet hardly finished, and millions of dollars have 
already been spent upon it. Beautiful columns of Egyptian alabaster, 
sixty feet high, and procured at a fabulous expense, stand in their 
places. The portraits of two hundred and fift3'-eight popes, begin- 
ning with Peter and running down to Pio Nono, not on poor canvas, 
but in rich stone mosaic, prepared from coins and medals, decorate a 
portion of the walls; and one is amazed at the vastness and grandeur 
of the plans. For such mammoth expenditures the people are taxed, 
and hard earnings are wrung from the honest poor to erect these use- 
less and extravagant temples of pride. 

There is scarcely one of the churches of Rome which is not 
famous for something curious. The people go to a particular church to 
worship, not because it is convenient, but because the church is famed 
for something, and there are very few of them w^hich do not have 
some tradition to make them sacred, or some relics, a sight of which 
is supposed to confer peculiar indulgences on the worshipper. In St. 
Peter's Cathedral there are kept records of these things: a column, 
which the traveller is told was the one against which Christ leaned in 
the temple when he disputed with the doctors, and which is said to 
have been brought from Jerusalem; the handkerchief with which Chris 
wiped his face when he was on the way to the cross, the form of the 
face marked in blood still being seen; a piece of the true cross. Some 
years ago the latter was stolen, probably for the jewels which had been 



1 68 RIP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. 

set in it. For a long time it was missing, large rewards were offered for 
it, a great ado was made about it. It was found, just outside the city, 
with the jewels broken out. All Rome had a jubilee when it was 
discovered. It was placed in a glass coffer, laid on a car, and a great 
procession drew it back to its old place in St. Peter's. Of course 
profane people are never allowed to see these relics. None but 
leaders of the Church ever look upon them. 

The Church of Santa Croce also has a piece of the true cross, and 
it is shown to the people once a year, in Easter week. Some of the 
bones of Thomas a Becket are also kept here. The Church of Ara 
Cseli is famed for the Santissimo Bambino, or wooden bab}^, a wonder- 
ful figure of the Saviour, which the Catholics tell us has miraculous 
power to cure all kinds of diseases. It was carved by a Franciscan 
monk, out of wood which grew on the Mount of Olives, and was 
painted by St. Luke, when the tired monk went to sleep one day. 

The Feast of the Baby once a year calls together all the sick 
people in the region, and wonderful are the cures said to be per- 
formed. It was in this church that Gibbon first conceived the idea 
of writing the " Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire." All the 
churches are distinguished for something of interest to those who hold 
the papal faith. In St. Peter's there is an old bronze statue of 
Jupiter; it was dug out of the ancient ruins and brought to this 
church, and here christened as St. Peter. The great toe of one foot is 
nearly gone, having been kissed away by the millions of pilgrims who 
have supposed it to be an image of the apostle, and have M^orshipped 
it as such. 

And now we leave Eternal Rome. I wish you could see us 
getting ready to start, in the lumbering diligence, which' has so 
often been described by travellers, who have made fun of it and 
scolded about it, but nevertheless have found it a very excellent 
vehicle in which to be transported from one Italian city to another. 



170 



RIP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. 



Florence. 



The objects of interest in Florence are the cathedral, the Baptistery, 
similar to that of Pisa, and the bell tower; the Pitti Palace, with its 
museums and galleries of art; the Boboli Gardens, with their rich 
foliage and shady walks; the convents and churches, rich with works 
of art; and a large number of public and private edifices, which 
wealth has adorned and beautified. The cathedral is an odd-lookinor 
structure, with a fine dome, from which Michel Angelo modelled that 
of St. Peter's, in Rome. The dome was the work of Brunelieschi, 
and is a wonder, which will make his name noted as long as it con- 
tinues to stand. It is built in alternate layers of black and white 
stone, and presents a unique appearance. 

The Pitti Palace is a very fine structure. It was built by Luca 
Pitti, who, by a series of misfortunes, became involved in ruin and 
disgrace. The galleries are filled with the finest paintings, in which 
are treasured up the works of the old masters. Miles on miles of paint- 
ings, and seas on seas of fine carving and chisel-work, are to be found- 
Here are the evidences of the genius of Titian, Raphael, Rubens, 
Bartolommeo, Michel Angelo, and a host of the old masters who 
have now fallen asleep. 

On our way to Florence we visited Pisa, where is the wonderful 
leaning tower, which has seven bells, and is two hundred and seventy- 
eight feet high. We ascend by a winding staircase, and from the top 
enjoy a fine prospect of the surrounding country. The deviation 
is from fifteen to eighteen feet; and as I stood looking down, the 
danger of falling appeared so great, that I was glad to descend as soon 
as possible. One naturally clings to the rail of the gallery as he looks 
down from the dizzy elevation upon the earth beneath, which seems 
to be passing from under him. Whether the tower was built as it is, 
in a leaning position, or whether the foundations have settled, is 
a matter of question, nor can an examination settle the point. I incline 
to the latter opinion, which accords with the view taken by most 
travellers. 



?^ij7ipfF^TiW7iniSiSi 




ill A iili'likiliiil 




172 



RIP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. 




THE BAPTISTERY, PISA. 



This group of buildings, with the Campo Santo, forms one of the 
most interesting objects of study and interest that can be found in 
Italy. The leaning tower is in itself a wonder, and the whole group, 
where millions of dollars have been expended, deserves a visit from 
every person who goes within a hundred miles of the spot. 



IN ITALY. 



173 



The Baptistery is an elegant building, standing near the cathedral, 
giving evidence of the purpose for which it was erected, and the use 
to which it was put. 

Venice. 

Venice was built long ago over the marshes of the Rialto. From an 
obscure beginning has arisen a great and magnificent city, the centre 
of a wonderful history, and the home of every practised art and every 
exalted science. It is built upon seventy-two little islands, con- 
nected by three hundred and six bridges, scarcely any of which will 
admit of any kind of horse-carriage. We anchored in front of the city, 
and no sooner were we ready to disembark, than we were surrounded 
with gondolas, propelled rapidly by rowers, all of whom wished to 
take us to the shore. Throughout the city, where we should have 
hacks and carriages, they have these gondolas. The gondola is a boat 
about twenty feet long, very sharp and narrow, and one or two men are 
generally seen spinning it along the canals or across the harbor. One 
man can row it as well as two, with one oar as well as two. They 
have a way of using the oar that they can row very finely on one side. 
In the centre of the boat is a little pavilion, and beneath this pavilion, 
to which there are curtains, the voyager sits, as in the body of a coach. 
We took one of these water-cabs, and were soon landed near the 
famous Square of St. Mark, crossing which we found ourselves at a 
comfortable hotel. In Amsterdam and Rotterdam there are about as 
many streets as canals ; but here, properly speaking, there are no 
streets; for though there are passages, long and narrov^, and one can 
go through the city on foot, yet he sees no carriages, and hears no 
rumbling of wheels. Every house faces on a canal, and every fam- 
ily has its boat. The city resembles what New York would be if all 
the streets should sink, and water should fill their places; the public 
squares surrounded with water; the churches and houses, and all 
the public buildings facing on streets of water, approached only in 
boats, or by mean, narrow passages; the water flowing along Broad- 



174 



RIP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. 



way, and whirling around into Park Row, flowing up and down 
the avenues and lanes, and the people all going shopping in boats, 
Christian people going to church in boats; men of business going to 
their places of merchandise in boats. The famous Rialto, or main 
canal, runs through the city in the form of an inverted S, and that is 
the Broadway of the city, while out in all directions lead the canals 
of various sizes. These canals all empty into the Adriatic, which is 
so near that they are always kept pure. 

The Square of St. Mark is on one side of the city, and is an open 
area of land, built on piles, and is surrounded on all sides by fine 
buildings, stores, &c., to all of which there are beautiful arcades, and 
the stores are full of all kinds of showy and ornamental articles. On 
St. Mark's Square is the famous Cathedral, unlike all others I have ever 
seen. The Venetians call it the finest church in the world. It com- 
bines the Gothic and Oriental styles of architecture, the latter predom- 
inating, and the whole building, with its turrets and pinnacles, very 
much resembles a Mohammedan mosque. As we crossed the thresh- 
old we were pointed to the spot on the pavement where the Emperor 
Frederick Barbarossa iind Pope Alexander III. were reconciled, the 
pope putting his foot upon the neck of the prostrate monarch, and 
making a formal declaration of his superiority to kings. \ 

Having viewed the Cathedral, which is a curious affair, we went 
into the Doge's palace, where pride and power once oppressed 
their subjects, and from which power if not pride has gone out for- 
ever. Few buildings in the world have seen more wickedness and 
witnessed more scenes of degradation than this same palace. The 
prison, of which all have read, is near the palace, separated from it 
by a narrow canal, and connected with it by a bridge — the famous 
Bridge of Sighs. In the days of Venetian pride and glory, no person 
was ever carried across who returned again to tell what he saw. The 
bridge leading from the palace to the prison is a mere covered pas- 
sage, wide enough for three persons to walk abreast. The walls are 



\ 



176 RIP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. 

very thick, and two small windows which admit the light are heavil}'- 
barred. Thousands have crossed that bridge never to retrace their 
steps. We saw in the prison three classes of cells: one for the sus- 
pected, one for the convicted, and one for the condemned. We also 
entered chambers where the victims were killed. The instruments 
of torture that still remain tell of the barbarity of the days gone by. 
A bare visit to these prisons makes the blood run cold. 

Not far distant is the Campanile, or bell-tower. It is a structure 
forty-two feet square, and three hundred and twenty-three feet high. 
We ascend inside by an inclined plane, winding round and round, until 
we reach the top, from which a view of the whole city is obtained. 
These bell-towers are very common in Europe. Instead of putting the 
chime of bells on the church, a high tower is built at a little distance, 
and from its top the sweet tones are emitted. 

In our gondola we went from church to church, looking at the 
pictures and the statuar}^, and the rich adornments, which give evi- 
dence of the taste of a former day. It was amusing to sail along the 
canals, meeting at every few yards some gondola, occupied now by 
the man of business returning to his home; now b}-^ the man of pleas- 
ure seeking recreation; now by the lady of some mansion who has 
been out to visit a friend, and now by a gay company of ver}^ young 
people who are enjoying themselves as we would on an evening ride. 
We did not see a mule, horse, donkey, or any such animal during 
our stay. Indeed, there is scarcely any use for such creatures. All 
the transportation of the city, the travelling, and the frolicking, is 
done by water. 

The bridges are so made that a carriage cannot cross them. Thev 
rise from the side of the canal by steps, and arch over the water 
beneath. There are numerous questions which arise in the mind of a 
stranger here, but they are all soon answered. How do the people 
get along without cellars.? Where do the children play? How do 
the men get to their daily work? And how do the ladies manage to 



178 



IN ITALY. 



^ 




ON THE GRAND CANAL. 



show their latest fashions ? When we left the city, we were told that 
the omnibus would start at a certain hour. We repaired to the spot, 
and found the omnibus to be a boat with a seat running along each 
side, with rowers, and a conductor. We went through the principal 
streets, paid our fare, and were landed in season at the depot. 

Few cities have figured more prominently in the world's history 
than Venice, and few have more blood upon its record. All about 
the place are evidences of the barbarism of the past. Over the whole 
is now an air of decayed splendor, and to all one sees there is 



RIP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. 1 79 

a mournful interest. It has long been the home of artists and poets, 
and some of the finest verses ever w^ritten have been inspired by these 

scenes. 

Verona. 

We left Venice late one evening for Verona, and arrived in that 
city after midnight. We entered an omnibus at the depot, scarcely 
knowing where we were going. Not a soul could speak English, and 
we could not speak Italian. On we rode; one passenger after another 
was left at his dwelling, and still on we rode, over a long bridge, 
through a dark street, beneath the heavy shadow of huge buildings, 
and at length we reached the hotel. A sleepy porter came out to let 
us in, and we were at length housed for the rest of the night. 

The city of Verona is a very old one, and the traveller finds some 
few objects of interest which repay his toil and time. Here is seen 
an ancient amphitheatre in a tolerable state of preservation. It con- 
sists of a huge oval structure, without a roof, with seats for perhaps 
twelve thousand persons. The structure is as perfect and gives as 
good an idea of such antiquities as does the Coliseum at Rome. The 
whole is composed of stone, and rests on enormous arches, in which 
now several miserable families make their abode, where once the wild 
beasts were kept for the gladiatorial shows. 

The tomb of Juliet is here, and for a slight fee is shown to the 
traveller who wishes to see it. In an old chapel, a stone coffin is 
found which curious visitors are asked to believe is the tomb of the 
fictitious character which figures on the pages of Shakespeare. The 
woman who exhibits it can answer no questions, and the coffin itself 
does not pay for the time it takes to go and see it. 

Getting through with Verona, and paying a visit to Milan, where 
is the most beautiful cathedral of its architectural order in the world, 
we one day found ourselves seated in a diligence, which was to take 
us over the Alps into Switzerland. 

Rip Van Winkle. 



IN SWITZERLAND. 



i8i 



IN SWITZERLAND. 




CHALETS NEAR SEPEY. 



One evening the Triangle were alone in their meeting. The night 
was not given up to visitors, and before business was takea up, a mis- 
cellaneous talk was indulged in by the boys, who felt an increasing 
interest in the travels of their Master. 

Hal was wild with a project he had formed, and which this even- 
ing he proposed to explain to his friends. 

" I have an idea which I think will interest you," he said. 

"What is it?" asked Will. 

" Yes, out with it, old fellow," added Charlie, " an idea is just the 
thing we want to get hold of." 

"Well, it is a good idea." 

" Certainly, if you have it, but tell us what it is." 



1 82 RIP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. 

" Why, nothing more than this, that we get the consent of our 
parents, and go to Europe, and meet Rip Van Winkle and go with 
him through the rest of his tour." 

" Where is the money coming from ? " 

" Of course our fathers must supply that." 

"But will they do it?" 

" We can but try them." 

This notion was talked over, and the " Triangle " resolved itself 
into a committee of the whole, to consider the matter and report at 
some future time. The communication of the Master was then 

opened. 

Geneva. 

One fine afternoon we found ourselves on board the diligence, well 
seated and on our way for the Alps. From two o'clock till eight we 
rode through a country of surpassing loveliness. We seemed to be 
in the midst of a garden all the way along. On we went by Lago 
Maggiore, and Isola Bella, the seat of Count Borromeo, now by the 
foot of mountains, and now along by beautiful waters until we arrived 
at Duomo D'Ossola, a mean Italian town at the foot of the Alps. 
Headley calls this place "a dirt}^ town, with a smell of garlic," and its 
" red-capped, mahogany-legged, lazy Lazzaroni, wandering about in 
it." Here we took supper, getting a beef-steak, half done, and a cup 
of coffee, half grounds, and at nine o'clock commenced the ascent of 
the Simplon. We left the beautiful Italian country beneath us and 
went winding up the Alps; on our ears fell the sound of rushing 
waters, and above us waved the mountain trees. Up, up, higher we 
went until we reached the Gorge of Gondo, which is a gallery five 
hundred and ninety-six feet long, cut out of a rock on the edge of a 
tremendous precipice. Over this gully the waters roar, and dash, and 
tumble in mighty torrents. Beautiful cascades go hurrying by the 
windows of the galler}^, and show you how terrible the passage is. 
All that night we rode on, up higher, the air becoming piercing cold, 



IN SWITZERLAND. 1 83 

the roar of the torrents, as they came leaping down from the moun- 
tains, more terrible, until at sunrise we reached the highest point, and 
stood beneath the wooden cross, while spread all around us, on that 
July day, were fields of ice and snow. Just over the top we found a 
mean inn, where we took a hearty breakfast, six thousand feet above 
the sea. Near this inn is a convent, where are several monks, who 
have dogs of the San Bernard breed, to rescue travellers who may be 
overtaken by a storm, or who may be so unfortunate as to be within 
reach of an avalanche. The Simplon pass is at a height of six thou- 
sand seven hundred feet; the St. Gothard is six thousand eight hun- 
dred feet; the Splugen six thousand eight hundred feet; the Great 
Bernard eight thousand feet. 

These mammoth roads were built by the mighty Napolieon, to 
carry out his terrible schemes, and the passages which he made 
over them in the winter must have been tremendous. Every 
reader of history will remember the terrible Pass of Macdonald over 
the Splugen, through a mass of avalanches. The passage was made 
late in November, after frequent snow-storms had filled up the whole 
roadway. But the hero was not to be deterred by dangers that threat- 
ened. Fifteen miles was to be marched in terrible peril. Breast-deep 
in snow Macdonald led up his soldiers. Now and then the avalanche, 
thundering with its awful power, came down with its white wings, 
sweeping away a whole file of men and their mules into the abyss 
below, leaving a chasm in the serried ranks. Still on they went, 
leaving the frozen dead all along the track, over whose corpses the 
wild winds howled a mournful requiem. No one can imagine the 
terrors of that passage; the avalanche making wide gaps, and hurling 
the doomed soldiers to certain destruction. From November 26 to 
December 6, it took that army to cross, and when on the plains of 
Italy fifteen thousand men stood in battle array, they well might con- 
sider it the noblest exploit of modern times. 

It took us about five hours to ride down the Simplon on the rocky 



i84 



RIP VAN WINKLE 'S TRA VELS, 




T-35«— .-— 



BRIEG, ON THE SIMPLON. 



ridge, winding back and forth, at times rolling along on the very edge 
of the tremendous precipice. The first town is Brieg, where we take 
our morning meal at eleven o'clock. It was a relief to get safely 
down. Though in summer there is no danger of avalanches, yet the 
scenery is so wild, and the precipices so numerous, that a sense of 
relief is felt when one is safe on the plains below. The shape of the 
mountain gives direction to the avalanche, and certain heavy sounds, 
heard some time before the inass begins to move, give warning of the 
danger; yet with all the care which is taken, lives are lost every year, 
and sometimes carriages are precipitated into the yawning gulfs below. 
One traveller tells us that a few days before he crossed, the diligence 




RAILWAY UP THE RIGI. 



1 86 



RIP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. 



was broken into fragments by one of these descending masses of snow. 
As it was struggling through the deep drifts right in front of one of 
those gorges where avalanches fall, the driver heard this low, ringing 





sound in the hills above him. 
Springing from his seat, he 
threw open the door, crying, 
"Run for your life! an ava- 
lanche! an avalanche! " and drawing his knife he severed the traces 
of the horses, and striking them a blow with his whip, sprang ahead. 
All this was the work of a single minute; the next minute the dili- 
gence was in fragments, crushed and buried by the headlong mass. 

After escaping from Brieg, we rode through a most charming 
country, the old mountains towering above us on both sides, while 



IN SWITZERLAND, 1 87 

the route along which we travel is decorated with flowers, and fertile 
as a paradise. At Martigny we stopped all night. This is a place 
where travellers usually take mules and go to Chamouni, from which 
place they explore the regions of everlasting ice. 

After a hard and very fatiguing ride, we arrived early the next 
morning at Lausanne, where we tarried awhile. The contrast be- 
tween this place and the cities on the other side of the Alps was very 
favorable to the former. We could see that we had passed from 
a region of filth and indolence to a quiet, industrious, well-ordered 
country; and Protestant Switzerland, though denied the natural ad- 
vantages of Papal Italy, seemed to us a paradise compared with the lazy 
monks and dirty streets of the cities of the pope. Near the hotel at 
which we took breakfast is the old house of Edward Gibbon, and the 
garden of our hotel was once the arbor in which he wrote the last 
page of his work, " The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire." 
We wandered over the town, saw whatever was to be seen, and asfain 
entering the diligence, started for Geneva. 

The towering mountains, covered with perpetual snow, were 
everywhere and constantly in view. I should fail if I should try to 
tell you of the pleasure derived in the weeks which succeeded our 
arrival in the country, in climbing among the pinnacles of crystal, and 
roaming over the fields of snow. Did space allow, I should write you 
about the adventures of our little party on the Mer de Glace, our 
exploits in the valley of Chamouni, the delightful experiences of the 
Rigi, with visits to shops, towns and villages, all of which you would 
be glad to hear about. But climbing about among these ice-hills and 
plains is not child's play. It is hard work and attended with great 
danger, and sometimes with very laughable adventures. 

The ride to Geneva winds along the shores of Lake Leman, and at 
every turn brings some new scene of beauty to the view. The lake 
itself, as one says, " lies in the shape of a half-moon, with the horns 
curved towards the south, and is the largest lake in Switzerland, being 



i88 



RIP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. 



fifty-five miles long." The waters are clear, and reflect, as in a pol- 
ished mirror, the sky, the birds which hover over or fly across it, and 
the tiny ships which float upon its surface. The banks rise gradually, 











ON THE MER DE GLACE. 



covered with objects of beauty, from the water-side to the towering 
mountain, and the eye rests upon a scene of delightful magnificence, 
wander which way it may, from the lone rock in the sparkling deep, 







VITZNAU STATION ON THE RIGI, I464 FEET ABOVE THE LEVEL OF THE SEA. 



190 



RIP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. 



on which stands the Castle of Chillon, the prison of Bonnivard, up to 
the old snow-crowned summit of Mont Blanc. 

We arrived at Geneva at nightfall, and after finding a hotel, we 




VALLEY OF CHAMOUNI. 



walked out to see the out-of-door life of the people. The streets 
were full of people, and the lighted lamps and shouting voices of the 
gay ones gave us a very pleasant idea of Geneva. There lived and 



IN SWITZERLAND. 




wrote John Calvin, whose power for good has been extended, and 
whose comments on the Scripture have formed the theological opin- 
ions of thousands. We spent our time in looking into the church 
where Calvin used to preach; in a visit to a new Catholic church 
about being erected ; to the English church where w;e saw a wedding- 
service; to the old library of Geneva; to the graveyard where Calvin's 
bones lie without a monument to mark the spot, he having requested 
that no expensive tomb be built for him. The grave has over it a 
common piece of granite, on the top of which are the letters "J. C." 
Beza, when he looked upon this unhonored grave, of one of the great- 
est of men, took up his pen and wrote: — 



1^2 RIP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. 

Romae mentis terror ille maximus, 

Quern raortuum lugent boni. horrcscunt mali, 

Ipsa a quo potuit virtutem discere virtus, 

Cur adeo exiguo ignotoque in cespite clausus 

Calvinus lateat, rogas ? 

Calvinum assidue comitata modestia vivum 

Hoc tumulo manibus condidit ipsa suis, 

O te beatum cespitem tanto hospite ! 

O cui invidere cuncta possint marmora ! 



Calvin — of falling Rome the dread. 
Whom all the good lament as dead, 
While wicked men still fear him, stern, 
Virtue from whom might virtue learn — 
Sleeps in this hiimble grave. And why ? 
The voice of truth gives this reply — 
'Twas Modesty, his living friend. 
Placed this memorial of his end. 
O happy grave, with whom is such a guest, 
That proudest marbles envy thee, thus blest ! 

Not only did we go to the grave of the reformer, but also to the 
house in which Calvin lived, situated in an obscure street. We 
entered the dark and dismal gateway, and knocked at the door of the 
room which was once the study of the reformer. Up these very 
stairs, and into this cheerless study, the men who were associated 
with Calvin went, and held communion. Kindred spirits they were, 
engaged in a kindred cause. Here those volumes were written 
which have left such an indelible impress upon the world — indelible 
because they only echo the teachings of God. Here the prayers were 
offered which went up to God, and moved his gracious will, and drew 
upon the supplicant such a measure of the Holy Ghost. Here were 
arranged those mighty schemes to disenthral the human mind, the 
influence of which we have not yet, and never shall cease to feel. 
The house is now occupied by those who scarcely know the name of 
Calvin^ and who look upon those who come with reverence to survey 
the premises ver}/ much as the barbarians of Italy look upon the 



194 



RIP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. 




HIGH STREET, BERNE. 



artists who cross sea and land to study the works of the great masters, 
or as the infidels of Jerusalem look upon those who come on pilgrim 
feet to bow in sad Gethsemane, or weep in sadness over the sepulchre 
of Jesus. 



IN GERMANY. 



195 



IN GERMANY. 




VIENNA, FROM THE UPPER TERRACE, BELVEDERE PALACE. 



The boys reported progress on the proposition made at the last 
meeting, and after hearing the opinions given by their parents voted to 
postpone their visit to Europe until after the return of Master Van 
Wert. Charlie's father was not willing that he should go at present, 
Hal's father said that he could not furnish the money, and Will's father 
consented with the proviso that the fathers of the other two consented. 
So it was two against one; and when it was put to vote the result 
was a unanimous rejection. 



ig6 RIP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. 

Berlin. 

I begin my account of Germany with its capital, not keeping up 
the order in which I visited the various places. We had been riding 
all night when the city appeared before us. A travelling friend was 
with me when we started for Berlin. In the car with us were five 
stolid Germans. The natives of the soil all had cigars or pipes, and 
my friend, believing in the motto, "When you are among Germans, do 
as the Germans do," got out his excruciating cigar, so that, in a little 
box of a car about six feet b}^ eight, there were six smokers, and they 
all smoked themselves to sleep, and the cigar-smoke was then 
exchanged for a nasal concert, in which six wooden trumpets would 
not have made a more discordant sound. We reached Berlin just 
as the sun was rising behind the distant hilltops, and after getting 
breakfast went out to explore the city. 

Travellers are so enthusiastic in relation to Berlin that we ex- 
pected to find a very beautiful city, and though we were not wholly 
disappointed, yet the place did not come up fully to our expectations. 
There is no way to get a good bird's-eye view of the city, and I sel- 
dom know much about a place unless I have been above it on some 
tower and looked down upon its streets and houses. The only toler- 
able view was from the Kreutzberg, or Mountain of the Cross, so 
called on account of a lofty Gothic cross of cast-iron erected on its 
summit b}^ the late King of Prussia to commemorate the deliverance 
of the country from French rule. It commands a good, and, in fact, 
the only view, of Berlin within convenient reach of every one. But 
the view from this point' is so distant that one does not feel repaid for 
the ride out to the place. 

Berlin being the residence of the royal family, it of course be- 
comes the resort of strangers. At certain seasons of the year the 
hotels are crowded with the representatives of government, and with 
foreign dignitaries, who are here on official business. 

Statues abound, and that of Frederick the Great is one of much 




BERLIN: STATUE OF FREDERICK THE GREAT. 



1^8 RIP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. 

attraction for its beauty and elaborate finish. The Unter den Linden, 
so famous as a walk for German students, as well as for the populace, 
is one of the charms of the Prussian capital. 

We were not sorry to leave Berlin, agreeing with a recent tourist, 
who says the city " is certainly the most dreary and unpoetical in 
Europe." The charm of Berlin lies in the society, the gaiety, and the 
wild and dissipated scenes, which a passing stranger does not have a 
view of It certainly cannot be in the architecture or in the streets. 
"The sidewalks," says one, "are paved with cobble-stones, sharp 
edge up, if they have any, with a single line of narrow flagging 
through the centre, never wide enough for passing. But the worst 
feature is the o-pen gutters^ for Berlin is strangely behind the age in 
regard to draining. Every street is traversed by two shallow, narrow, 
open drains, one on each side of the carriage-way, and through these 
all the filth of the city flows slowly and thickl}^ towards the sluggish 
river; and, as the streets lie entirely open to the sun, the exhalations 
arising therefrom are not likely to remind one, unless by force of con- 
trast, of the spicy gales from Araby the blest. The city employs a set 
of men to wash them out daily, and keep them as clean as possible 
under the circumstances; but kitchen and chamber pour a steady 
stream into every drain, which no amount of clean water can purify. 
There are, in fact, but two streets in Berlin exempt from this pesti- 
lential annoyance." 

Dresden. 

Dresden is justly celebrated for its Art Galleries and its famous 
Green Vaults, where are gathered the antique treasures of the nation. 
The art collections are to the stranger the chief attraction of this 
great town, though there are other objects of interest. The tourist 
could stay here among the fine paintings for weeks, and not suf- 
ficiently admire the whole. Among the most noted pictures is Ra- 
phael's Madonna di San Sisto, which was purchased for this collec- 
tion at the sum of forty thousand dollars, and Wilkie says, " The head 



JN GERMANY. 



199 




DRESDEN : ENTRANCE TO THE ZWINGER, AND THE STATUE OF FREDERICK. AUGUSTUS. 

of the Virgin is perhaps nearer the perfection of female beauty than 
anything else in painting." Here Rubens figures largely, and his 
peculiar style of execution appears in its best light. The Italian, 
German, Dutch, French, and Spanish styles of art are all found here, 
and had we had the excellent taste of our friend Mr. Oldschool 
we should very likely have remained much longer than we did. 
There are here three hundred thousand engravings, in all the varied 
styles of that art, and everything which can make that collection 
valuable. 

Near by is a Historical Museum. One room is filled with speci- 
mens of painted glass, exhibiting all the changes in that art. Another 
is filled with implements of sport and pleasure, hunting, fishing, and 
the like. Another is filled with armor used in the ancient tourna- 



20d lUP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. 

ments, with coats of mail, and armor of all kinds. Then there is a 
gallery filled with the various instruments of war, including the arms 
of Augustus III., who, the historian tells us, was a man of herculean 
power, having " lifted a trumpeter and held him aloft (in full armor) 
in the palm of his hand; and twisted an iron banister of a flight of 
stairs into a rope, and made love to a maiden, holding a bag of gold 
in one hand and an iron horseshoe in the other." 

In another room are fire-arms; another filled with coronation 
apparel and trinkets; another with a Turkish tent taken at the siege 
of Vienna in 1683; another with riding utensils and parade-uniform 
for horses; another with minerals; and so on to the end of the chap- 
ter. These galleries of paintings, and collections of statuary, armor, 
and antique curiosities, are very fine and extensive, and Dresden is 
visited annually by thousands to see these things alone. 

The Green Vaults consist of a suite of rooms on the ground-floor 
of the old Palace, containing the richest collection of jewelry in the 
world, amounting to some hundreds of millions of dollars. The first 
vault contains articles in bronze; the second, articles in ivory; the 
third, a rich collection of Florentine mosaics; the fourth has large 
quantities of gold and silver plate, which has been accumulating for 
ages. Two or three other apartments are filled with gold, silver, and 
precious stones, wrought by the greatest skill into wonderful combina- 
tions of beauty. As an illustration of the costliness of the articles, I 
may mention a trinket called, by Dinglinger the artist, the " Court of 
the Great Mogul." It looks like a child's to}^, at the first glance, but 
soon it is found to contain one hundred and thirty-eight figures in pure 
gold, very delicately apparelled. It cost eight years of labor, and fifty- 
eight thousand four hundred dollars. There are here rubies, sapphires, 
pearls, and diamonds. There are many curious things in these vaults. 
We saw an ^^^ which was sent as a present to a Saxon princess long 
ago. It was an iron ^^^. Long did the receiver keep it without 
knowing its value or the purpose for which it was sent. One day in 



IN GERMANY. 




DRESDEN ; BRIDGE OVER THE ELBE. 

handling it she touched a spring, and the ^gg opened and revealed a 
golden yolk. Time rolled on, and a spring was discovered in the 
yolk, and that opened and out dropped a jew^elled chicken. By some 
concealed spring the chicken opened, and a ruby crow^n, all studded 
with jewels, fell out. This also opened, and a diamond marriage-ring 
was laid up within. The trifling thing must have cost thousands of 
dollars and years of labor and skill. 

It is vain for me to attempt a description of these things. Their 
value is fabulous, and ages have been adding to them. No other 
nation on earth has such a collection as this, and the stranger walks 
throuo-h these vaults with the grreatest admiration. 

In Dresden, as in most of the continental cities, we were surprised 



at the children, their numbers and forwardness. 



Indeed babies 



202 RIP VAN Wh\KLE'S TRAVELS. 

seemed to be the chief production of some towns, and here in Dresden, 
we found them in crowds. Whether they are born, or grow as little 
Topsy did, I could not tell, but they were everywhere. They filled 
the streets, they were jumping out from every court; they decorated 
the green parks; they thronged the public squares; they gathered on 
the doorsteps of churches; they were lounging around the market- 
places. They are up to everything; ready to carry your carpet-bag, 
to steal your handkerchief, or beg a penny of 3^ou. 

Prague. 

A somewhat prosy city, whose attractions are external, all on the 
outside. The fine Statue of Charles V. calls to itself attention, and 
wins admiration. 

A day and part of a night I spent in the city, glad at the end of 
that time to get away from it, as the heavy rains and flooded streets 
made everything dull and uninteresting. 

Hamburg. 
At home we are seluom cheater, by hackmen. But our first expe- 
rience here was a swindle by one of these gentry. In our country if 
a stranger is being cheated by one of them, and appeals to the land- 
lord at the hotel, he gets justice, the landlord taking the part of the 
injured person, and setting the matter right, but throughout Europe it 
is generally different from this, the landlord siding with the hackman, 
who is endeavoring to fleece his victim. 

Our first impressions of Hamburg were very favorable. It is a 
city of one hundred and sixty thousand inhabitants, and is a very beau- 
tiful place. It is situated at the confluence of the Elbe and the Alster. 
In 1842 a dreadful fire swept through the city, raging four days in 
spite of all the efforts to stay it. Sixty-one streets were swept clean 
and clear, and with the lanes and alleys running through them, were 
left without an inhabitant. One thousand seven hundred and forty- 
nine houses were destroyed. Fire-engines were first used to arrest 




PRAGUE: STATUE OF CHARLES I\'. 



204 



RIP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. 



the flames; houses were then pulled down, but the rubbish caught 
fire faster than the populace could remove it. Powder was then 
employed, and the artillery was turned out to batter down the doomed 
habitations and stores. So extensive was the damage by this fire that 
though two hundred thousand dollars were raised by subscription for 
the sufferers, it did not seem to be felt in the mitigation of their 
suflTerings, and the city of Hamburg made vast loans to repair the 
injury done. Banks in whose vaults were masses of bar-silver and 
stamped coin; churches whose walls were covered with works of art; 
stores filled with silks and costly goods; houses of the rich and the 
poor, were levelled with the ground and left a heap of smoking ruins. 

This fire in many respects has been a great blessing to Hamburg, 
for the burnt district has again been built up with a ver};^ superior 
class of buildings, and thus one section of the city has a beautiful 
modern aspect, and an air of great elegance and taste. The.Alster 
Basin, a fine sheet of water in the newly built part of the town, formed 
by the water of the Alster, is a fine square pond, with a broad, beau- 
tiful street running all around it. On this street, facing the Basin, are 
all the prominent and most beautiful hotels in the city. The sheet 
of water is about as large as Boston Common; and at all times beau- 
tiful white swans may be seen dipping their long necks in it; fine 
boats with gay flags are sailing over it; and at night the sweet songs 
of the people, as they sail about, come with bewitching melody to the 
shores. 

There are several fine buildings in Hamburg; a small exchange; 
the Rathhaus, or government official-house; several fine churches, 
theatres, and hospitals. 

While walking about the streets ot Hamburg, I noticed large num- 
bers of young women, well dressed, with what appeared to me to be 
a small coffin under the arm. On inquiry I found that these young 
women w^ere servant-girls, housemaids and cooks. The thing under 
the arm is an oblong basket like a coffin. These girls dress very 




CANAL AT HAMBURG. 



2o6 RIP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. 

richly, with long gloves, a neat lace head-dress, and this basket cov- 
ered w^ith a very rich shav^l. They have a peculiar v^ay of carrying 
the basket under the arm, and there is great rivalry among them about 
the character of the shaw^l. I saw^ some of these girls w^ith the basket 
covered w^ith a shawl rich enough to cost more than every other 
article of clothing they had. In the vicinity of the markets-, scores, if 
not hundreds, of these girls can be seen at any time during the day. 

I think the Triangle would be as much interested in the market- 
girls of Hamburg as in the public buildings. But divested of their 
baskets and wares, they would doubtless appear to be a most unpoetic 

race of beings. 

Heidelberg. 

Heidelberg is a town of about fifteen thousand inhabitants, and 
famous for its university, castle, and some other things. It is a place 
that has met with many vicissitudes — been bombarded five times, 
twice burnt, and several times devoted to pillage. It has suffered 
from the French and the Austrians, and has a history of much 
interest. 

The university is in the centre of the town, and has seven hun- 
dred students, who are noted for duelling and many other bad prac- 
tices. They fill the streets, stare into the faces of the ladies, outrage 
decency, and conduct themselves in a manner that w^ould be tolerated 
in no American or English town. The library of the university has 
one hundred and fifty thousand volumes, and it is said that in the 
" Thirty Years' War," when Tilly sacked and bombarded the town, 
he littered his war-horses on the manuscripts and papers of this 
library, and some others of private citizens. 

The Castle of Heidelberg is a very noted place, and combines the 
characteristics of a fortification and a palace. It is now in ruins, a 
small part of it only being occupied. It has been bombarded, riven 
with lightning, and now lifts its ruined towers, like huge giants, on 
the lonely height, waiting for a final doom. There is a museum in 



-^i^.ipEyLiii|ii"i,i''y:it 






^Laffittiti^te^ 



y . in 




HAMBURG MARKET WOMAN. 



208 



RIP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. 





HEIDELBERG. 



the castle which the stranger visits, to see many antique things, reHcs 
of the past. 

In one of the vauhs beneath the building is a most remarkable 
wine-cask; the largest, I believe, in the world. It was made in 1751, 
and is now in a good state of preservation. It will hold eight hundred 
hogsheads, or two hundred and eighty-three thousand two hundred 
bottles. A platform is on the top, and in old times, when the cask 
was filled, a country-dance was held on the top of it. It lies on its 
side, and is thirty-six feet long and twenty-four feet high. 

From the castle a fine view of the town is obtained. The river 




i5\fHARACH {Bacchi Aio) 



2IO 



RIP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. 




HEIDELBERG BRIDGE. 



Neckar flowing calmly by, and the distant hills beyond, make the 
prospect a very fine one; and from the river and the streets of the 
town, the castle shows a bold and striking figure, as it seems to hang 
from the rocky precipices over the streets below. 

Heidelberg has many grand old houses; and, indeed, throughout 
German}^ these ancient residences draw attention everywhere. I 
would like to show you one that I saw in one of my rambles. 

And, while speaking of old houses, let me tell you of the Rat- 
catcher's House, in Hanover, of which you have heard, and about 
which I remember to have read to you some time ago, during school- 
hours. It will answer to go with the rat story of Bingen on the 
Rhine, where the cruel Bishop Hatto came to a bad end. 




MwiwiiiiupipiiiiM 



THE RAT-CATCHER'S HOUSE, HAMKLN. 



212 RIP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. 

As Mr. Browning tells the story, the town was infested with rats. 
The mayor and the corporation offered a great reward for their ex- 
tinction. A piper with his piping drew all the rats from their nests to 
the river Weser, where they perished in the water. The destruction 
of the rats caused great joy. 

" You should have heard the Hamehn people 
Ringing the bells till they rocked the steeple." 

The piper demanded the fifty thousand guilders which had been 
promised him, but the corporation would not pay it. The piper 
threatened. The corporation said, — 

" You threaten us, fellow ? Do your worst, 
Blow your pipe, then, till you burst." 

The piper blew, and all the children of the town came flocking 
after him, and he drew them to Koppelberg Hill, where a chasm 
opened, and piper and children disappeared together. This house, on 
the spot where the piper lived, commemorates the rat extermination, 

and the fate of the children. 

Adelsberg. 

This town is visited mostly on account of a wonderful cave of 
stalactites which is found here. Into this cave we went several times. 
It runs into the earth, under the mountain, and has several suites of 
halls and galleries. It is one of the wonders of Germany, and tourists 
resort to it from all countries. As you enter the cave it seems as if 
you passed out of this bright and beautiful world into one of death and 
stagnation. You leave everything that you have ever seen before, 
and in this cavern far below the mountain find a silent, death-like 
abode of icy gloom. Here are courts and corridors, palaces and 
castles, cathedrals and priories, ball-rooms and dining-halls, all 
wrought by Nature's wonderful magic. You climb into gal- 
leries of wonderful perfection, or descend into caverns of awful 




WITTENBERG: MARKKT-PLACE, WITH LUTHER AND MELANCHTHON STATUES. 



214 



RIP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. 




KLAGENFURT: THE DRAGON FOUNTAIN. 



darkness. The lake formed by the continual drops of water is far 
below, and no one who has ever gazed down into it will challenge the 
description of a tourist of the present year. ''^Leaving the ball-room," 
he says, "we turn suddenly off to the left and move upward along a 
steep, narrow ledge, over the low hand-rail of which we look down 
into a fathomless gulf of blackness, such as -Dante and Virgil gazed 
into from the winding path which traversed the nine circles of the 
Inferno. Far down in the eternal darkness we can hear the ghostly 
drip of unseen v^ater, falling, falling forever, and building up inch by 
inch, through countless ages, new portions of this great temple of the 
night. All at once the dim light of our candle is eclipsed by a 




IN THE CAVERN 'OF ADELSBKRG. 



2l6 RIP VAA WINKLE'S TRAVELS. 

brighter gleam, and a vast white mass, seemingly suspended In mid- 
air, starts suddenly out of the gloom, glittering, twinkling, sparkling 
like a thousand stars in one. It is a monster stalactite, at least forty 
feet in length by more than twenty in thickness. Its shape is that of 
a gigantic ear-drop, the upper part being pure white, while the count- 
less drops of water which hang trembling from the clustering spires 
of the lower portion sparkle into one large rainbow as the light falls 
upon them, flinging far into the depth of the everlasting night a blaze 
of many-colored splendor. How many thousands of years has this 
wonderful prism been growing to perfection, drop by drop, and yet it 
is only one out of the infinite number which stud this strange 
labyrinth for miles upon miles. Indeed, it is more than probable that 
the most magnificent secrets of the Adelsberg Grotto are still unseen 
by human eye; for it was a mere chance which betrayed the hollow- 
ness of the rock at the end of the first gallery, and tempted the dis- 
coverers to break through it into the world of wonders beyond," 

Not far from Adelsberg is Klagenfurt, where are a few objects of in- 
terest, and among them a unique and singular piece of work, known as 
the Dragon's Fountain, so called because the water pours from the open 
mouth of an iron dragon in a horizontal position. The whole region 
between Trieste and Vienna is far more interesting and more worthy 
of attention, than tourists who ride rapidly through suppose. 

Vienna. 

This Austrian capital is a delightful city, with streets well laid 
out, the parks numerous and more than respectable in size and appear- 
ance; the monuments many, and elaborate in their style and execu- 
tion; and the whole city elegant and fascinating. We spent some 
days in strolling into churches, museums of art and science, and in 
wandering through the streets and pleasure-grounds. 

The emperor has a magnificent palace at Vienna, though he stays 
here but little of the time. He is comparativel}' a young man — about 
fifty years of age; and the empress is about forty-seven years old. 



IN GERMANY. 21 7 

They do not stand so high in the affections of the Austrian people as 
some other monarchs have done, but no one dares speak out the honest 
sentiments of his heart. 

My opinion of the Austrians improved on acquaintance very 
much. I had supposed them a rough, uncivil people; but, v^^herever 
M^e v^^ent, v^e found them the reverse of that, and I am inclined 
to the idea that, for general good feeling and true politeness, 
the Austrians are not behind the English or French. Indeed, if in 
England we stopped a man, and asked a civil question, we did not 
always get a civil answer. Often we would ask the way to a certain 
place, and more than once the man has passed on, after hearing the 
question, without deigning a reply; or, turning off, abruptly answered, 
"Don't know; ask a policeman." But in Austria and Germany it 
was not so. If we laid hold of a man in the street, and asked him 
the direction to any place, and he could not make out what we said, 
he would stop, think, try to comprehend our bad German or worse 
French, and really delay himself a long time to befriend us; or, 
perhaps, leading us along to some shop where the keeper could speak 
English, set us right in that way. On one occasion we wished to find 
a certain banker. We were misdirected, and fell into a rival banking- 
house at some distance from the place where we wished to go. The 
head of the house, a banker of vast wealth, kindly took his spectacles 
from his nose, put down his newspaper, and endeavored to make us 
comprehend where the banker we wished to find did his bank-work. 
Not being able to explain so that we could understand, he called one 
of his clerks, who, laying down his pen, accompanied us down one 
street and up another, a mile or less distant, to the place of our desti- 
nation. The idea of a rich banker doinof this civil and courteous 
thing in England or America is an absurdity. If we should ask one 
of our bankers, we should have a short, pie-crust answer, a gesture 
of impatience, and a wave of the hand, and that is all you would find 
out from him. What should we think of the president of a New 



2I< 



RIP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. 



York Bank sending one of his clerks to assist a stranger in finding 
a rival institution? The difference is not always in favor of our 
own country on the point of courtesy. A Yankee would have 

knocked us down in some 
cases; or, if he had not 
dared to try that on our 
travelling friends, would 
have given us an impudent 
reply; while the Austrian 
and German patiently en- 
deavored to assist us out of 
our dilemma, and set us on 
the right track. 

Frankfort. 
We stop here a little 
while preparatory to a 
voyage down the Rhine, 
and look at the homes of 
some of the world's distin- 
guished men. Here is the 
house once occupied for a 
time by Luther, and the 
house of the world-famed 
Goethe, which is visited by 
all American tourists. The 
monument to the memory 
of Guttenberg is a fine 
thing. Guttenberg, Faust 
and Schaeffer stand together 
upon its top. The monu- 
ments of Goethe and Schiller, the statue of Ariadne, and other 
works of art make Frankfort an attractive place, which we leave with 
regret, to take passage on that famous river, the Rhine. 




FRANKFURT: LUTHER'S HOUSE. 




FRANKFURT: JFWS QUARTER. 



220 



RIP VAN WINKLE 'S TRA VELS. 



IN BELGIUM AND HOLLAND. 




WINDMILLS, FOR DRAWING OFF WATER. 



Master Van Wert had now been more than a year in Europe, 
and having spent the winter in Paris, he now starts again, going north- 
ward through Belgium and Holland, in order to be in the high lati- 
tudes in the summer months. This was wise, for Norway and Sweden 
can hardly be said to be interesting countries to visit in the winter. 
So this letter is dated at the gay and pleasure-loving Belgian capital. 

Brussels. 

A word about the hotel system that we meet in this new country. 

It is as different from the English plan as it is from the American. It 

is a combination of both, with variations. In some respects it is 

better than our wav. A room is taken, and at the table the traveller 



IN BELGIUM AND HOLLAND. 221 

can have just what he calls for, and is obliged to pay for nothing that 
he does not order. He can be as independent as he pleases. He can 
go and come, eat or starve, as he chooses. He can have little or 
much. He can call for his coffee and roll, and pay for that; or, if he 
Welshes meat or fowl, he can order it, and the price is charged accord- 
ingly. Thus one can live much more economically if he chooses to 
do so, than among us. He can pay seventy-five cents a day for his 
room, and take his meals at a shilling each, at some eating-house 
where he may happen to be. But unless he is shrewd he will be 
cheated, for there is no meanness to which the hotel-keepers in many 
European cities do not sink themselves. There are many little things 
which are charged extra unless the traveller has his eyes open. For 
instance, he will find in his room two candles. The servant will light 
them both, and perhaps they will burn a half-hour, and in the morning 
he will find himself charged with the two candles at a quarter of a dol- 
lar each. The servant takes these candles, after he is gone, shapes the 
ends, and makes them look like new, and then charges them over and 
over again to others — an English shilling each. I thought I would 
try to be as sharp as the landlord; so at Brussels, finding that the 
candle was charged in the bill, I took it, and when we went to the 
next place, and the servant was about to light his candle, I said, "" Oh, 
no, sir; we don't w^ant candles," and forthwith produced our own. 
Thus we kept using it; and the single candle probably saved us five 
dollars. Well, then, as to soap. We found at Brussels that the ser- 
vant had put no soap in the room. We inquired for soap, and two 
cakes, which had been used before, were brought us, and when we 
went away, though v^e had used the soap but a few times, and the 
size of the cakes was scarcely diminished, yet forty cents extra was 
charged for it — twenty cents a c^ke. As I could not think of being 
cheated in that way, I took the soap and stowed it into my bag, and 
thus saved considerably on soap, the clerk telling me it was mine, and 
that nobody else would use it. 



2 22 RIP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. 

We found Brussels to be much such a city as Paris, but on a 
smaller scale — the same cafe system, the same out-of-door habits, 
the same "Chateau de Fleurs " style of things carried out. The King 
of the Belgians, whose palace is here, is a very worthy man, much 
respected by his people and by the other sovereigns of Europe. His 
kingdom is so small that his opinion is of little weight among the 
crowned heads, but as a man, and a good ruler, he is highly esteemed. 
His chief care is to keep out of trouble with his more warlike neigh- 
bors. 

We spent our time in the city in visiting the cathedral, a venerable 
old building; the Hotel de Ville; an old town-house with a new and 
superb steeple, one of the highest and most magnificent in Europe;, 
the parks and public buildings, which are all so much like those of 
other cities- that they do not merit a description. 

The manufacture of lace is carried on here to a great extent, and 
we went into several of these lace-factories. I was not before aware 
of the delicacy of the process of lace-making, and if our ladies could 
stand as we did, and see the poor girls with reddened eyes and weary 
hands, toiling for a mere pittance to make the fabrics which contribute 
so much to st3'le and finish of dress, they would hardly wish to have 
the article about their persons. Each piece of lace worn upon the 
neck costs hours of weariness and sorrow, and many an article that 
is deemed unworthy of a thought, has been washed with tears. The 
process of lace-making is very slow, and were not the poor oper- 
atives obliged to work for almost nothing, it could not be offered for 
the prices for which it sells. We found in the show-rooms of the 
establishments that it could be bought for one-third or one-half it costs 
in our country, the rest being chargeable to freight or duties. 

Laboring people everywhere in Europe are despised, and slaver}' as 
surelv exists as it once did in our own land. The operatives in mills, 
the waiters in hotels, the various classes of public servants, seem con- 
scious of inferiority. In our country, the Irish girl is often mistress of 



IN BELGIUM AND HOLLAND. 



223 



the house, and the hired man not seldom rules his master. Servants 
are called " help," and many there are who would leave their places 
should they be designated as servants. I have read of an English gen- 
tleman, who having crossed the ocean, stopped at a hotel in one of our 
small Yankee towns, where the people lived in the enjoyment of the 
greatest degree of democratic simplicity. The story runs that he had 
dinner; and among those who sat at the table with him was the wait- 
ing-maid, whom he designated as "servant;" but he received an 
indignant correction from the landlord : " We call our servants, sir, 
Helps. They air not oppressed; they air not Russian scurfs." "All 
right," said the Englishman, " I shall remember that." And he did 
remember, for in the morning he awoke the whole house by calling 
out at the top of his voice, which was like the tearing of a strong rag: 
"Help! help! — water! water! " In an instant every person equal to 
the task rushed into his room with a pail of water. " I am much 
obliged to you, I am sure," he said; "but I don't want so much water, 
ye kno' — I only want enough to shave with." " Shave with! " said 
the landlord; "w^hat did you mean by calling ^Help! water!' we 
thought the house was a-fire." "You told me to call the servants 
■^ Help,' and I did; did you think I would cry wa/er when I meant 
fire:' 

The chief pleasure of our stay in Brussels, centred in a visit to 
Waterloo, which is twelve miles from the city. We took a carriage 
to ride out to the place where were decided the fortunes of half the 
world, and where in a single game of fate Napoleon lost his empire 
and his liberty. All the way along, the road was lined with beggars 
and cripples. Almost every house we passed, some deformed creature 
would rush out and beg charity. Little boys in droves would run for 
miles alongside of the carriage, turning somersaults, standing on their 
heads, and performing various feats, to get the reward. The bones 
and rubbish of the battle were piled into a mound that now marks 
the spot where the battle, which decided the fate of Napoleon and of 



224 RIP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. 

Europe, was fought. The mound is full of the relics of the fight — 
pieces of cannon, bullets, cap ornaments, and a hundred things that 
were strewn over the field on that eventful day. So little change has 
been made in the surroundings, that it is easy to follow the fortunes 
of the day, and the historic descriptions of thebattie are easily verified 
and confirmed. To a thoughtful man a trip over the field of Waterloo 
is very suggestive. There turned the fate of great Empires, the des- 
tinies of great men, the fortunes of great parties, and the issues of 
great controversies. The spot is sacred, and whoever walks over it 
feels that he is walking over the scene of an encounter which changed 
the fate of the world. 

We returned to Brussels, and having seen all we wanted to of 
that city, pursued our way to Antwerp, which is a short ride from the 
capital. Antwerp is a very interesting place, and was formerly noted 
for its commerce, but the city now is in a declining state. It lies on the 
bank of the river Scheldt, and a century ago contained two hundred 
thousand inhabitants, but has now dwindled down to one hundred 
thousand. An old historian states " that in the time of Charles V. two 
thousand five hundred vessels were sometimes seen at once in the 
river; that five hundred loaded wagons of provisions daily entered the 
gates; that five thousand merchants daily met on the Exchange." 
War and oppression have reduced the opulent city, until now it bears 
marks of decay in every street and square. The number of vessels 
seen in the river is small, and the evidences of trade are very few. 
At the time we were there, after our return from the interior, the 
royal yacht of the Queen of England was lying in the river. The 
Queen, the day before we reached the place, had arrived, and had 
gone on her way to Berlin, to visit her daughter, the Princess Royal, 
wife of Prince Frederick William of Prussia. The yacht is a speci- 
men of royal luxury and extravagance, fitted in a sumptuous style, 
and one of the finest boats in the world. It is a steamer, and as 
large as the English mail-steamers of the Cunard line, and probably 



IN BELGIUM AND HOLLAND. 



225 



cost as much as any two or three of them. We asked the officer in 
charge what she cost, and he repHed, " that is not known to the pub- 
He. Such large sums have been expended on her, that it is deemed 
advisable to keep it from the people." Externally she is not showy. 
She has a black hull, with a wide gilt stripe running all round her, and 
looks as if she could attain great speed. The deck is underlaid with 
cork, so as to prevent the tread of those on deck from disturbing those 
below, and all the various fixtures are very fine. The Queen's state- 
chamber; the dressing-room of the late Prince Albert; the state-room 
of the Prince of Wales, the apartments for the ladies-in-waiting, and 
the tutors of the royal children, are all fitted in magnificent style, and 
with a richness seldom seen on ship-board. 

Amsterdam. 

Surely we are in a strange country now — the "land of water." 
Holland lies below the level of the sea, and is preserved from inunda- 
tion by the means of dykes. Canals, instead of carriage-roads, serve 
as highways. Every city is a curiosity. 

Rotterdam makes you feel as if you were in a constant dream. 
Delft gives you an idea of a world made of windmills. The Hague 
convinces you that the whole human family w^alk on bridges, while 
Amsterdam combines windmills, bridges, canals and boats, until you 
don't know whether you are in a boat, on land, or in a dream. There 
have often been fears that the wild waters in some fierce storm 
would overflow their narrow banks and flood the land. There have been 
many times when destruction threatened the country. " The winter 
of 1824-5 ^^s o^^ of the most calamitous to the country " (says one 
writer), "known for many years. The first of February, 1825, was a 
day of great anxiety; had the sea continued to rise a quarter of an hour 
longer, the dykes must have been overflo\ved, and perhaps given way, 
and Amsterdam would have suflfered a most disastrous inundation. 
Fortunately, at a moment when the danger was most urgent, the rising 
tide stopped, and the great pressure on the sea-walls and dykes was 



226 



RIP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. 



immediately diminished, but the lower part of the town had been laid 
beneath the water." Nor is all the danger from without. There are 
constant fears that the ice of the Rhine and the Meuse may become 
obstructed, and thus allow the waters to be piled up for a while, and 
then breaking away, flow down through the Dutch river, into all the 
canals, jeopardizing all the tenantry. 




ROTTERDAM. THE OLD HARBOR. 



The canals vary in width from six feet to sixty, and are found 
everywhere. Towns communicate with each other by means of them. 
The people often dig a canal instead of building a fence. It is not 
uncommon, in travelling through the country, to see a man's head just 
above the surface of the field which adjoins the road, moving along at 
a brisk rate. Cross over, and you will find a canal covered up with 
grass, and almost hidden, along which boats are passing continually. 
These canals are formed through the marshes by digging out the peat 
and forming connections with other canalsi 



IN BELGIUM AND HOLLAND. 



227 



It is curious, in going through Holland, to see the immense num- 
ber of windmills that appear in all directions. Wind is made to do 
the work of water and steam, being used for all the processes of mill- 
work, grinding, sowing, ploughing, etc. There are thousands of these 
windmills, and they cost an immense sum of money, and do an 




INTERIOR OF A HOUSE. 

immense work. As you approach a town or city, you will see the 
huge arms of the mill, and the flapping sail, as if guarding the place 
from invasion and surprise. Everything is so odd that you feel as if 
you had got into another world, where the people lived on different 
principles. 

To a stranger, no place in Holland is more interesting than the 



228 RIP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. 

Hague. The older parts of the city have the finest specimens of the 
old Dutch architecture, while the newer sections have all the elegance 
of modern life and taste. It is a city of immense wealth, the seat of 
political influence and power, the headquarters of the government, 
and the abode of the Dutch aristocracy — and that word does not 
mean more in any country than it does in Holland. 

The bazaars and stores at the Hague are very large and sumptuous. 
In one of these stores, I think we saw four tim.es the amount of fancy 
articles I have ever seen in any store in Boston, New York, or Lon- 
don. The most curious fancy articles, the most elaborate and skilful 
workmanship, the most tasteful fabrics of all descriptions, were for 
sale. Connected with the store was a fine garden, into which many 
glass doors opened, and the customers could go out and walk there. 
We spent an hour in this magnificent store, which exceeded anything 
of the kind we saw in any other city. 

Like other Dutch cities, the Hague is all cut up with canals, and 
these look, to a stranger, exceedingly unhealthy. They were cov- 
ered, when we were there, with green leaves and a greenish slime, 
and seemed almost entirel}' stagnant. Though the Hague is near the 
open sea, the city cannot be drained into it, being lower, and liable to 
be inundated by the waters from without. 

The court of Holland is not as august and imposing as the court 
of St. James or the court of Berlin. The members of the royal family 
mingle with the people very freely, and consequently are beloved by 
the masses of the population. The tourist can visit the king with as 
little ceremony and restraint as an American can call on the President 
of the United States. Holland comes nearer in spirit to the republi- 
can idea than does any other kingdom on earth. 

L3'ing between Hague and Amsterdam are the beautiful towns 
of Haarlem and Leyden. At the former place is a noble organ, for 
a long time the largest in the world; but of late several have been 
made, and thus the fame of this is not as great as formerly. It was 



IN BELGIUM AND HOLLAND. 



229 




AMSTERDAM. THE AMSTEL. 



built a long time ago, has five thousand pipes, three manuals, and a 
richness and sweetness of tone surpassing any other. The organ at 
Birmingham town-hall, one in Strasbourg, and some one or two more 
are larger, but none have been so admired for sweetness, richness, 
and harmonious blending of sound as this. 

Leyden is a town of forty thousand inhabitants' has a noted uni- 
versity, a museum of natural history, several fine churches, and a 
really striking history. The very name is dear to us, on account of 
the associations which link it with some whose names we bear and 
whose principles we inherit. 

Our last stay in Holland was at Amsterdam. This is perhaps the 
best specimen of a real Dutch city. It has about two hundred thou- 
sand inhabitants, and is a wide-awake, commercial place. There is 
no part of it where a house can be erected without pile-driving. The 



230 



RIP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. 



canals cut it up in all directions, and these canals "divide the place 
into ninety-five small islands, connected by no less than tw^o hundred 
and ninety bridges." The buildings are good, and look substantial; 
though we w^ere told that the foundations often proved ineffective. A 
few years since, a large lot of corn-houses was crushed down into 
the earth, the weight in them being too great for the number of piles 
used in their erection. Even the streets are guarded by legal enact- 
ments, and heavy business is done almost entirely on the canals. The 
city is a bay, no better, without piles, than our Back Bay lands would 
be; no amount of gravel can make the upper stratum sound. The 
palace, a vast stone structure, built in the seventeenth century, rests 
on thirteen thousand six hundred and fifty-nine piles, driven seventy 
feet into the earth. 

A large number of the inhabitants of Amsterdam are Jews; and it 
is very curious to ride through their quarter of the city, and see the 
numberless stalls for the purposes of trade. There are perhaps twenty 
thousand of this outcast nation, who invoked on their own heads the 
blood of Christ; and they are ready to buy, sell, or do anything else 
whereby a little money may be made. 

We found the people of Holland very hospitable and kind, and 
the quaint way they have of doing everything, adds an interest to the 
stranger's visit. How any one should w^ish to live in such cities as 
Rotterdam and Amsterdam, I do not see. I should think the people 
would feel as we may imagine a family to feel who had built a house 
on a raft, half way down the harbor, and did not know but the 
next storm would carry away their moorings. Butler speaks of Hol- 
land as 

" A country that draws fifty feet of water, 
In which men live as in the //^/(^ of nature, 
And when the sea does in upon them break. 
And drowns a province, does but spring a leak." 

To keep out the water costs Holland an immense amount of 
money, and the total of the hydraulic works between the Dollart and 



IN BELGIUM AND HOLLAND. 



231 



the Scheldt, has been estimated by competent persons to have cost 
an immense sum — so immense, that did I not see it stated on reliable 
authority I could hardly credit it. 

The roads in Holland are made at very great expense. There are 
scarcely any stones in Holland, and the road is made of brick, covered 
with gravel. The brick are called hJinker, and are manufactured for 




AMSTERDAM THE LIME MARKET 



the purpose, and a road costs about seven thousand dollars per mile, 
and, consequentl}^, the tolls are high and the travelling expensive. 

When Holland has been invaded by foreign powers, they have in 
several cases opened trenches, and let in the water upon the foe. 
They were willing to overjflow their land, and devastate their fields, 
in order to destro}' the enemies who had found a lodgment on their 
soil, a novel way surely of driving out invaders. 

The Dutch are a very clean people. They are always scrub- 
bing, and you can look in no direction, but you will see the people 



232 RIP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. 

scrubbing their sidewalks, or windows, or the fronts of their houses. 
The village of Broek is said to be one of the cleanest towns in the 
world. It is filled up with wealthy families, and to keep the streets 
clean, they have made them too narrow for a hand-cart. The walks 
are paved with small bricks, pieces of marble, and shells. The 
houses are kept perfectly clean and glistening from one end of the 
year to the other. A town regulation forbids any one to smoke with- 
out a stopper on his pipe. When you enter a house, a servant will 
lay down a wet cloth to wipe your feet upon; and as you advance mto 
the hall you will find a large collection of slippers, and 3^ou are 
requested to take off your boots ere you go farther. Nothmg offends 
a Dutch woman so much as to have an unclean and untidy man about 
the premises, and nothing will bring a famil}' into disrepute sooner 
than to have a reputation for slackness and untidiness. 

On leaving Holland for Germany, we began to find trouble with our 
money. To a traveller it is a great annoyance to be obliged to change 
his money at a discount everywhere he goes. In going from Amster- 
dam to Hamburg, a few hundred miles, the money changes several 
times, and unless the utmost care is used, a considerable loss is in- 
curred. The money of some of these petty European principalities is 
so poor that the beggars will not take it, and you do not find anybody 
who is poor enough to receive it when once you are out of the city in 
which it is manufactured. For instance, the currency of Hamburg, 
will not go a dozen miles outside of the walls, and the very change you 
took when you bought your ticket at the station-house, you cannot use 
to buy an apple or orange at the first stopping-place on the road. In- 
trinsically it often has no value, and a bushel of the money of Ham- 
burg, of certain denominations, would not sell to any tinman in this 
land, for the value of pewter in weight. 

We left Amsterdam one day at noon. The Dutch rail-cars are 
a considerable improvement on the English, being cushioned with 
leather, and more neat and tidy in appearance. Just before starting 



IN BELGIUM AND HOLLAND. 233 

we discharged the courier who had accompanied us from Paris, find- 
ing that he was only a plague and an expense, knowing, less about the 




AMSTERDAM. IN THE POOR DISTRICT. 



languages than we did ourselves. A ride of two or three hours took 
us out of Holland, where the strange sounds constantly heard, and the 
strange sights constantly seen, are calculated to please and amuse the 



2-2 4 RIP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS, 

Stranger. The Dutch are a grand people, eminently respectable, 
industrious and moral. No person could travel about through their 
queer country without a feeling of respect for the inhabitants, who 
have made so much of a land that lies beneath the level of the sea. 
The industry of the citizens is strongly marked. Habits and customs 
prevail which are found nowhere else on earth. The old saying 
which was familiar to me in my boyhood, — "This beats the Dutch," 
spoken when any strange thing had happened, never had any force to 
me until I went about among the people of Holland. They are 
a people, who, as the author of Hudibras says : 

"That always ply the pump, and never think 
They can be safe, but at the rate they sink ; 
That live as if they had been run aground, 
And when they die, are cast away and drowned ; 
That dwell in ships, like swarms of rats, and prey 
Upon the goods all nations' fleets convey. 
And when their merchants are blown up and cracked, 
Whole towns are cast away in storms and wrecked ; 
That feed like cormorants on other fishes, 
And serve their cousins-german up in dishes. 
A land that rides at anchor, and is moored; 
In which they do not live, but go aboard." 

Rip Van Winkle. 



DENMARK, NORWAY, AND SWEDEN. 



235 



DENMARK, NORWAY, AND SWEDEN. 




BERGEN. 



" The old Master is in the higher latitudes," said Charlie, as the 
Triangle met one evening. 

"Where is the old fel- 
low.'^" asked Hal. 

" Don't call him ^ old fel- 
low.' " 

"Why not?" 

"Because it is not re- 
spectful toward a man that 
we love and honor so much." 

"But is he not old.?" 

" No, only about sixty." 

"Whew! I call that old." 

" Well, admit that it is old age, you are not to call him ^ fellow.' " 

"Now, why not? Is he not ^a fellow' of the Triangle, — are we 
not all ^ fellows ' together? But, never mind, where is the honorable 
gentleman?" 

" In the higher latitudes." 

"That is delightfully clear and plain." 

" Well, wait until the letter is opened. I have only seen the post- 
mark." 

" We'll wait and see." 

When the letter was opened it was found to cover a tour through 
the three little kingdoms of the North, so seldom deemed by tourists 
worthy of a visit. 



236 RIP ^AN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. 

Copenhagen. 

I am now in the chief cit}^ of Denmark, — "the mark of the Dane," 
on the shores of the Baltic. You know I have visited Europe 
several times, but never have gone so far north as this country 
before. I now propose to see this land, — and pass through Norway 
and Sweden, into Russia. The area of Denmark is four hun- 
dred and forty-five thousand seven hundred and five square miles, 
and the population is a little less than three million persons. 
This includes the islands and colonies of the little kingdom. The 
religion of the country is Lutheran, though other sects are toler- 
ated, and the Jews, Moravians, Baptists, Anglicans and Roman 
Catholics all have congregations. The king must be a member of 
the Lutheran church. 

The educational privileges of the country are great. Copen- 
hagen and Kiel have well-established universities in which nearly 
two thousand students are favored with advanced education. All 
children between the ages of seven and fourteen are obliged to 
attend school, and as the law on the subject is well obeyed, the 
Danes are generally an educated people. 

The Church of Notre Dame is one of the most noticeable in 
Copenhagen, both for its exterior and interior. The cathedral also 
is a fine edifice, and an ornament to the city. The people appear 
happy and contented. The support of royalty seems to set lightl}^ 
upon them, and they bear its taxation and financial burdens without 
murmuring or complaining. The kingdom is under the fostering care 
o± England, the Prince of Wales having chosen his wife — who, on 
the death of Victoria, if she and the prince both live until that 
time, will be Queen of England — from the royal family of Den- 
mark. The trade of the nation is considerable, and the material 
wealth of the people is not small. 

Copenhagen has much to attract strangers, and among other 
things to be mentioned is the Thorvaldsen museum, named for 



238 RIP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. 

the celebrated sculptor, and containing his works. The newspapers 
are above the average, the Dagbladet being the leading one. 
What that ugly-looking word means I will leave you at the meet- 
ing of the Triangle to find out. If you succeed well, take the name 
of another, — the Flyveposten^ — and see what you can make of it. 

The royal palaces are fine buildings, and would put to blush 
some of the royal residences of Great Britain, while the galleries 
of pictures and museums of art compare well with those of Ger- 
many, though, of course, much less extensive. 

The Bourse is a fine building, and the merchants of the city are 
as proud of it as are the Londoners of the Royal Exchange. The 
harbor is excellent, and would afford protection for three hundred 
large vessels, if they wished to avail .themselves of it. The regular 
shipping of the port is about four hundred vessels, and there are 
steam communications with almost every port in Europe. 

Being the seat of government, the residence of the royal family 
and the university city, it is a centre alike of political, literary and 
religious influence. To those who go to Copenhagen expecting to 
find rudeness of manners, or an illiterate population, the surprise 
will be great to find the city not only beautiful, but the seat of a 
high degree of cultivation and refinement. 

Though I have spoken of this city more particularly, other places 
in Denmark abound in interest; and not merely the cities, but the 
rural districts and country places, have a charm for the tourist. There 
are some specimens of architecture, among which the Chateau de 
Rosemborg may be especially mentioned. 

It was with regret that I packed my bag and took my cane to 
leave the country of the Danes, where I was treated w^ith great 
courtesy, and where I spent several pleasant weeks. 

Christiania. 

The change from Denmark to Norway is very marked. It seems 
hardly possible that two countries lying so close to each other should 




INTERIOR OF CHURCH OF NOTRE DAME. 



240 



RIP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. 



■^t-S? 




be so dissimilar in their customs and manners; but, located at an inn 
in one of the peculiar Norwegian streets, we took time to study the 
people and their ways. Primitive habits prevail, and there is an air 

of dulness everywhere. There 
is nothing to remind you of 
any country through w^hich 
you have ever travelled be- 
fore, and you seem to have 
dropped down in a region not 
many years distant from the 
Middle Ages. Though Chris- 
STREEi IN cHRisTiANiA. tiauia, being the seat of gov- 

ernment, is more fashionable than many other places, and has more 
marks of modern taste, yet, as soon as you pass out of a few of the 
more fashionable streets, you find the same dull, heavy appearance, 
alike in places and people. 

The Winter Palace of the 
king is a conspicuous building, 
standing on rising ground, at 
the terminus of one of the 
leading thoroughfares. It 
gives, in its external aspect, 
but little idea of a palace, its 
plainness reminding one of our 
academy buildings at home. 
WINTER PALACE. Thc summcr abode of royalt}^ 

has less of this stiffness, and is picturesquely situated on the banks of 
the Christiania Fjord, and bears the name of Oscarshall. It is an 
irregular structure, whose white w^alls rise in an embossment of green 
foliage, and forms a very pleasing object for the eye to rest upon. 
All the forms and usages of royalty, all the requirements of court 
etiquette, are kept up punctiliously, in this little kingdom of one 





CATHEDRAL OF ROSKILDE, COPENHAGEN. 



242 



RIP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. 



hundred and twenty-four thousand square miles and one miUioa 

five hundred thousand inhabitants, as in St. Petersburg or Brussels. 
The social and domestic customs of the people are all very plain 

and simple. The living are married and the dead are buried without 

ostentation, and the whole people live 
with the utmost frugality. If you 
should see a marriage procession on 
its way to the little church, the groom 
and bride drawn in a cart by a mule 
or donkey, preceded by a man vigor- 
ously playing upon a violin or some 
other instrument of music, while friends 
and relatives followed in a rejoicing 
procession behind, you would hardly 
know what to make of it; and yet 
there is something honestly beautiful 
about it. As in Denmark, so in Nor- 
way — almost all the people can read 
and write. There is as much liberty 
of thought and action among the people 
as in Great Britain. The king, who 
must be of the Lutheran religion, is 
crowned as King of Norway at Dron- 
theim, and must reside four months 
of the year in this country. Since 
the possession of Norway was con- 
signed to Sweden, the offices of state 
have been committed to a council of 
eight citizens of the country, who 

administer public affairs in the name of the King of Norway and 

Sweden. 

One of the natural wonders of the country — and the natural won- 




THE VETTIFAS. 



''iwl 



!ii:il!ill!' 



■■■^^^^^^^^^ 




244 



RIP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. 



ders are not numerous — are the Vettifas, in a wild Norwegian pass, 
which every tourist in this country should visit. The waterfall has 
a descent of one thousand feet, and, clear as crystal, pours itself down 
in an unbroken stream. It does not compare with some of the cas- 
cades of the-Alps in the quantity of water which falls, but there are 
no features of the kind in Europe which surpass this for beauty, the fall 
being undisturbed by rock or bank, or anything else to break its force. 




THE NORWEGIAN WEDDING. 



Bergen was once a royal town, but Christiania has taken away its 
glories, and left it to its little trade, mainly in fish; and, instead of 
showing the stranger a palace or a court, the people take him to the 
fish-market, which is a rival of Billingsgate in London, in more ' 
respects than one. The Norwegian women cannot talk so fast as 
their London sisters, but they can say as bad words when they get 
at it. We left Norway with a feeling of surprise that so few people 
come to visit it. 




CHATEAU OF KO' EMBORG 



246 



RIP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. 



' Stockholm. 

Again the scene changes. We exchange the societ}' of the com- 
fortable Danes and the stoical Norwegians for the company of the 
Swedes. We are in a country nine hundred and seventy miles long, 
and having an average breadth of two hundred miles. It has an area 
of about one hundred and seventy-one thousand square miles, and 




THE CAMP IN THE FOREST. 



nearly four million inhabitants. I have been pretty well through its 
diversified scenery, travelled through its forests and over its moun- 
tains, mingled with its inhabitants. Stockholm is a fine city, and all 
its inhabitants seem to be in a thriving condition. It is the capital, 
and on that account holds a superior rank among the cities of the 
country. It was originally built upon several islands which have been 
connected by bridges. The palace of the king is a very striking 
structure, and outstrips altogether the Danish and Norwegian abodes 



DENMARK, NORWAY, AND SWEDEN. 



247 



of royalty. It is the Venice of Sweden. Outside of the great cities 
the people are primitive in their habits. The styles of living, the 
means of transportation and loco- 
motion, the marriage and funeral 
customs, the household obser- 
vances, and the religious cere- 
monies all shovv^ how old usages 
retain their power, and how hard 
it is to introduce new improve- 
ments into old and time-worn 
countries. General intelligence 
seems to characterize the people, 
though the standard of general 
intelligence may not be here what 
it is in Paris or London. You 
boys will read in history that this 
fair city was twice defended from 
insurgents or foreign invaders, by 
women, long before the da}" of 
modern woman's rights. Chris- 
tiana, Queen of Denmark in 1501, 
wife of King John, held the for- 
tress here for five months, until 
her garrison of one thousand men 
was reduced by starvation and the 
sword, to eighty persons. Though 
at length compelled to yield, she gave intrepid evidence of the power 
of woman's will and female heroism. Christina Gyllenstierna held 
the cit}^ against the Danes for four months, and showed a heroism 
so worthy of renown, that when Christian II. at length reduced thei 
town to submission, he was- obliged to pledge royal protection to the 
people, which pledge he basely violated, and the city was given up 




TRANSPORTATION. 



248 



RIP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. 



to pillage and the people to slaughter. It was the most bloody day 
Stockholm ever knew. 

Sweden, Norway and Denmark are so insignificant in extent, so 
inconsequential in trade, and so barren of resources, that they fortu- 




FffN h£Wl £R3 

SWEDISH LOVERS. 



nately do not excite the cupidity and envy of the stronger powers. 
They do not lie in the track of war, and are consequently saved from 
devastation. The King of Denmark has strengthened himself by alli- 
ances with the most powerful nations of Europe. Maria Dagmar is 
the wife of Alexander III., and her younger sister Alexandra, is the 



DENMARK, NORWA V, AND SWEDEN. 249 

wife of Albert, Prince of Wales. One sits on the throne of Russia, 
and the other is heir to the throne of England. 

The scenery of Sweden is wonderful. Nature has been prolific of 
her benefits, and the tourist, if he has the soul of the poet, or the eye 
of the artist, can spend much time amid the variety of scenery that is 
found here. At one season the days are very short, there hardly being 
any day, and at another season the days are very long, there being 
scarcely any night. In winter the people are in danger of sleeping 
too much, and in summer too little. 

Rip Van Winkle. 



250 



RIP VAN WINKLE 'S TRA VELS. 



IN RUSSIA. 



||i|ili!!i!|ipilll(lfipifi|f|K 




SLEIGHING. 



The letter of the Master from Russia came at a time when the 
eyes of the whole world were turned toward that empire, in conse- 
quence of the assassination of Alexander II. in the streets of St. Peters- 
burg, on Sunday, March 13, 1881. 

The Triangle met two weeks after, and found the letter with the 
St. Petersburg stamp upon it. 



IN RUSSIA. 25 I 

" We are to hear to-night from the scene of the recent tragedy," 
said the president, " shall we spend the half-hour previous to opening 
the lecture in discussing the event w^hich it is likely to communicate, 
the murder of the Czar?" 

" I move we do," said Will. 

" Are there any remarks upon the motion ? " 

" We do not know yet what the letter contains," remarked Hal. 

" It is presumed, that as the letter bears date more recent than the 
assassination, that that sad event will be a prominent subject before us 
to-night. Shall I put the question.? " 

"The question!" — "The question! " called two voices. 

The question was put and carried unanimously. 

The opinion of Will was then called for and given. 

" The assassination of the emperor is only a natural event, a thing 
to be expected," he said. " Years of wrong and hardship have made 
the people of Russia mad against their tyrants. The Nihilists have 
engaged to destroy the throne, and break down the government, and 
though they ma}^ be wrong, they have great provocation, and the event 
which has transpired was one which might reasonably have been 
expected." 

"I do not so look at it," said Hal. "The Czar of Russia, while 
an autocrat, from the structure of the government of which he was the 
head, was a humane and merciful man. Few men have ever sat upon 
any throne, that did rriore for their people than Alexander II. He 
emancipated the serfs, an act that was not forced upon him by war, as 
the emancipation act was forced upon President Lincoln by civil 
w^ar, but it was the act of his own heart, the dictate of his own judg- 
ment. He also gave to his people the right of trial by jury, a right 
which, however liable to abuse, is regarded as one of the distinguishing 
privileges of a free nation. He also conferred upon his people many 
other great blessings which had been denied them by former sover- 
eigns. I therefore think that the deed was one that nobody should 



252 RIP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. 

have expected, and one of the most unnatural that could have been 
committed." 

"If I may be allowed to speak without vacating the chair," said 
the president, " may I not suggest that the assassination was at the 
same time a most natural and a most unnatural event. It was unnat- 
ural, because the late czar was a humane man, and had done many 
worthy acts; and was natural, because he was the head of a corrupt 
and oppressive government. He stood before the people as the 
embodiment of authority and power, of oppression and tyranny. 
There was no legislature to stand between him and the people; 
no cabinet to share with him the odium of unpopular ideas, and a 
maddened populace looked only to him for redress, and when it 
did not come, it was natural that they should select him as the 
object of their vengeance. He was the law for eighty millions of peo- 
ple, and it was no matter of surprise that discontent should aim at 
him. 

" But the time has come to open the letter. Therefore, silence all, 
and listen to Rip Van Winkle." 

St. Petersburg. 

The last thing should be first, I have been now many weeks 
in Russia, but I must tell you at once of the last event which has 
occurred in this empire. It is nothing less than the assassination 
of the czar, Alexander II. The assassination of monarchs is not a 
strange thing. The fate of Charles I. ol England, beheaded at 
Whitehall, and the doom of Louis of France, who was executed 
in Paris, are only instances of a public retribution and violence 
that have shaded the world. Even the virtuous and good President 
Lincoln, of our own country, was shot while sitting in his box at 
the theatre. And this wilful murder of the Emperor of Russia is 
a like instance of human ferocity. Five previous attempts had been 
made upon the life of Alexander, — the first in 1866; then again 
in 1867. The third and fourth attempts were made in 1879, and 



254 



RIP VAN WINKLE 'S TRA VELS. 



then again in 1880. In 1881 the attempt was successful. The 
emperor was returning from a review of the royal troops, March 
13th, when a man who had been watching for the royal cortege, 
threw an explosive shell, which shattered the carriage in which 
the monarch rode, killing and wounding some of the ro3''al retinue, 
but leaving the emperor unharmed. Alexander calmly left his 
carriage, and was superintending the care of his wounded guards 
when another shell was thrown, by which the czar was terribly 
mutilated. He lived only an hour, when the soul of a great man 
went into eternity. His son, Alexander III., was at once inaugu- 
rated, and the empire passed into younger hands, while the miserable 
assassins were hurried away to prison. The czar was in the sixty- 
third year of his age, having reigned twenty-six years. 

• As soon as was practicable after the exciting events of the week 
that opened with the massacre of the imperial head of the govern- 
ment, I began to look about the city, which is now clothed in its 
winter dress. St. Petersburg, as its name implies, was named for 
Peter the Great, by whom it was founded in 1703. Moscow was 
formerly the capital, but the mind of Peter was directed toward this 
place as the residence of the royal family and the seat of government. 
He first erected a fortress, and surrounded it with buildings for public 
use, and in 1712 declared it to be his capital. But it was for a long 
time a mean place, the climate, the soil, and the whole location being 
bad; but these disadvantages have been triumphed over, and St. 
Petersburg is now an elegant city of more than half a million people. 
The streets are wide and spacious, while many of the buildings are 
elegant. 

The Winter Palace, to which Alexander II. was taken after the 
tragedy which ended his life, is perhaps the most extensive palace in 
the world. When the royal family is at home, this palace has six 
thousand occupants. It is as elegant as it is spacious. Its halls, 
chapels, corridors, are finished in the most elaborate manner, and the 



■1 ( ,'\' ''\ 








m^4 




256 



RIP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. 



whole is worthy of the line of monarchs that make it their winter 
home. There are several other palaces, occupied by various members 
of the royal family, and all of them evince much taste. 

The Cathedral of Our Lady of Kasan is among the most notable 
churches. The Church of St. Peter and St. Paul has a spire two 
hundred and eight feet high. In its crypts below are the remains 
of the imperial monarchs since Peter the Great. The Isaac Church 
is one of the noblest specimens of architecture on the continent. 
Many other churches stand in conspicuous places, located so as to 
be attractive and ornamental, aiding in beautifying the city. Perhaps 
no city has three finer streets than the three principal streets of St. 
Petersburg. The Neva Perspective is four miles long and one hun- 
dred and thirty feet broad. The buildings are not crowded and 
huddled together, but stand apart from each other on large lots — a 
feature seldom found in large cities. 

The Imperial Library is notable. It has five hundred thousand 
printed volumes and twenty-five thousand manuscripts. There are 
several other great libraries, and museums of natural science, and 
academies of fine arts. The University of St. Petersburg holds a 
high rank among the educational institutions of the continent, with its 
seventy-five professors and four hundred students. I think Americans 
generally find St. Petersburg a very much finer city than they 
expected, its benevolent and humane enterprises more extensive, its 
people more enlightened, and its industries more remunerative and 
better conducted than they anticipated. The city is on the Neva, but 
its port is Cronstadt, which is about sixteen miles distant. Statues 
of Peter the Great, Alexander I., and various other characters lend 
additional attraction to the streets and squares. 

The climate is not so severe as is sometimes supposed, the mean 
temperature of summer being 63° and that of winter 12°. The winter 
cold is steady; and what Yankee boys would delight in, the sleighing 
is superb. 







m 

m 

iiiiiiii 



'''ll'"ll|f| 






258 



RIP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. 



The new Emperor, Alexander III., married Maria Dagmar, daugh- 
ter of the King of Denmark-, and sister of the Princess of Wales, wife 
of the heir to the British throne. Whether he will be allowed to 
reform the government, correct abuses, and do what his father failed 
to do, or whether he will fall a victim to Nihilism, remains to be 
seen. Time only can tell. 

Moscow. 

This city is about four hundred miles from St. Petersburg, and is 
quite unlike it in most particulars. While the capital has a modern 
appearance, Moscow seems to have grown up in ancient times. The 
principal building is the Kremlin, which was restored by the Emperor 
Nicholas. The fire of 1812 did not do as much damage to Moscow as 
has generally been supposed. The statements in relation to the 
burning have generally been put forth by the French, and in part to 
cover their ignominious retreat. But a small part of the place gives 
any evidence of having been touched by fire. At the time the city 
was occupied by the French, the place was surrounded by immense 
wood-yards, where the people came for their supplies during the long, 
inhospitable winter. These piles of wood, and the sheds which 
covered them, were set on fire by the Russians, that the French 
might be compelled by winter's cold to flee. The French saw this 
line of fire all around the city, the blaze pouring forth at different 
points, and supposed the whole place was in flames, when in fact the 
city itself was untouched. Sparks reached the Kremlin and pro- 
duced destruction there, and a few other buildings were destroyed 
and a few streets were laid waste. But the architecture of Moscow 
indicates that the present buildings date far back of the entrance of 
Murat in 181 2. The masonry, the street lines, the ancient archi- 
tecture, all convey us back toward the middle ages. 

At Moscow the emperors are crowned. Here Alexander II. had 
the crown put upon his head in 1856, and here probably Alexander 



26o RIP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. 

Alexandrovitch, his son and successor, who has already assumed the 
empire, will have the diadem put upon his head. 

You will want me to tell you about the Kremlin. That is a 
famous building for boys. I never saw a boy who did not care more 
for the Kremlin than for all the rest of Russia together. Well, this 
celebrated fortress, which stands on a slight elevation which slopes 
down to the river Moskva, was built in the fourteenth century. It is 
not one single building, but an immense pile of buildings, surrounded 
with high walls and battlements. Here is the monster bell, — king of 
bells, the largest in the world. Hung in the tower of St. Ivan, 
it weighs fifty-seven tons. Moscow is a city of bells. They can be 
heard ringing and rhyming, tolling and tinkling. They are of all 
sizes, but the one in St. Ivan is the largest. The heaviest bell in the 
United States is on the City Hall in New York, and that weighs only 
twenty-three thousand pounds, — a small aflfair compared with this 
monster of nearly sixty tons. 

There are many elegant buildings in Moscow, but they are of 
ancient date. The palaces are grand, but do not equal those of St. 
Petersburg. The churches are numerous, most of them of the Greek 
religion. The inhabitants form a heterogeneous mass of all the 
classes that come under Russian rule. 

A few other places in Russia, — such as Cronstadt, Warsaw, Vla- 
dimir, Kiersh, — were seen, and two of us, the other being a 
German who had joined me in Sweden, and who was a very clever 
travelling companion, found our way to the shores of the Black Sea, 
where we took a steamer in earl}^ spring for Constantinople. We 
came near as we wished to Siberia, though that region is not so deso- 
late, nor is banishment to it so great a hardship, as some imagine. It 
may be that the Siberian exiles are as well off as the suspected Nihil- 
ists in St. Petersburg. 

Russia is the largest Empire in the world. It has in Europe an 



IN RUSSIA. 261 

area of 2,074,738 square miles, and a population of nearly seventy mil- 
lion souls. It has all the various grades of temperature, from tropic to 
frozen, and though there is much to admire, in the people and in the 
government, there is also so much to condemn that the English or 
American traveller is sure to feel a relief when he crosses the border 

into another territory. 

Rip Van Winkle. 



j62 



RIP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. 



IN TURKEY. 




At each meeting of the Triangle a large map of Europe was sus- 
pended from the wall, and the course of Rip Van Winkle pointed out. 
On the evening succeeding that on which the budget from Russia was 
opened, the club met, and in an informal way talked over the enter- 
tainment of the evening. 

" Before we open the letter," said Will, " let us guess how our 
traveller gets from Russia into Turkey." 

" That is what nobody can guess," replied Hal. " He skips about 
so that no one can tell where he is likely to turn up." 

" I am not so sure about that. The Master has taken a pretty clear 
course." 



IN TURKEY. 263 

" I think SO too," chimed in Charlie. " He went through Ireland, 
Scotland, England, France, Switzerland, Germany, and wintered in 
Paris. Starting again, he went through Belgium, Denmark, Norway, 
Sweden to Russia, where the last news left him." 

" But guess how he will get to Constantinople," said Will. 

" Why," said Hal, " he will somewhere strike the river Dniester, 
and come down to Odessa, and there take steamer on the Black Sea 
to Constantinople. That will be the most direct way from the heart 
of the Russian Empire." 

" What say you, Charlie } " 

"Don't know." 

" But you can form some opinion." 

" Perhaps I can. Let me see the map." 

" Here it is, and now for your opinion." 

" I think he will have nothing to do with the river Dniester, but 
will strike the line of one of the railroads that I see are laid out 
through the southern part of Russia, and which seem to make Odessa 
a southern terminus. If there is steam navigation on the Dniester, it 
must be very mean and poor." 

"Then you both agree," said Will, "that he will cross the Black 
Sea."" 

" Of course," said both boys. 

" Why of course ? " 

"Because," said Hal, "he will have no other available way of get- 
ting from the central part of Russia into the Turkish capital. But 
open the letter, and let us see what Rip Van Winkle says about it." 

Charlie opened the letter, but that gave no information as to the 
wa}^ the traveller went from Russia to Constantinople. He merely 
announced his arrival in that place, in the fewest words possible. But 
Charlie was probabl}' right. The Master doubtless found his way 
down through the Empire to some Black Sea port — probably Odessa, 
and thence by steamer to the city of Constantine. 



264 RIP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. 

Constantinople. 

This is a city of delightful romance. It is an urbs septicollis^ 
situated like Rome on seven hills, that rise from the shore one above 
another, forming a most magnificent amphitheatre. It has a popula- 
tion of nearly a million souls, and the city proper has a circumference 
of a dozen miles. Lying at the south- w^estern entrance of the Bos- 
phorus, with a harbor capable of containing fifteen hundred ships, it is 
fitted so far to be the commercial capital of the w^orld. Its pictur- 
esque situation, its costly mosques, its brilliant bazaars, its labyrinth of 
streets, its legends and traditions, its fountains and baths, all form a 
combination of attractions that make a visit to that city quite enchant- 
ing. There is a charm in the very name — Constanti7iople. At its 
mention a cloud of dim fancies rise before the mind, and dreams of 
poetry and splendor take possession of the imagination. Luxury, 
voluptuous ease, dreaming, drama, romance, are all in the word itself 

How shall I describe Constantinople, as it appeared to me as we 
entered the magnificent harbor? On one side, in the dim distance, 
rose Mount Olympus, the throne of the gods, the seat of the ancient 
mythology, while on the other side were the swelling domes, the 
tapering minarets, the glistening mosques, and the matchless exter- 
nals of the Turkish capital. It is a marvellous scene, on which one 
could gaze for a long time without becoming weary of it. Perhaps 
there is no city on the face of the broad earth which has so beautiful 
an appearance to the traveller as he approaches. On the seven hills, 
rising one behind the other, the city is built, and from the Sea of 
Marmora it presents the spectacle of a crowd of golden temples, pal- 
aces, towers, and houses set in green foliage, and arranged with 
exquisite taste — a wilderness of glories, which the stranger feels 
impatient to explore. The Golden Horn is a horn-shaped arm of the 
sea that extends into the city, dividing it, with Pera on one side and 
Stamboul on the other. The Horn is full of shipping from every land. 
Vessels topped with flags of all nations are anchored there. Bridges 



IN TURKEY. 



265 



of boats span it; gay caiques, a boat peculiar to Constantinople, are 
darting like arrows across it, and the whole presents a charming scene, 
unequalled by any of its kind in the world. 

We had no sooner come to anchor than a score of porters from 
the hotels were on board with their cards, and selecting a name that 
we liked, we put ourselves under the charge of the conductor, and 
were soon at the landing, where we were met by the custom-house 
officials. They were a dirty set of Turks, who pulled to pieces all our 
bundles, examined every bit of paper, and unrolled every package of 
stones, or leaves, or relics of any kind that we happened to have. In 
one valise was a pocket-inkstand, and the ignorant fellow could not 
open it. He screwed and turned, but the cover would not come off, 
but he would not give up until the thing was open and he could see 
what was inside. This is the first case I ever knew of custom-house 
officers being afraid that contraband goods were done up in an ink- 
stand. But at length we escaped. Our baggage was put upon the 
kamals, and we went rushing up into the city on the Pera side. The 
hamal is a porter who carries burdens on his back. A kind of saddle 
is strapped on the shoulders, and enormous is the load carried. One 
hamal carried nine valises, each of which was a lug for a man. We 
were soon in comfortable quarters at a hotel, kept by a lady, which 
we reached by climbing high hills, and traversing faded, gloomy 
streets. 

What there is to see in Constantinople we shall now discover. On 
entering the streets, the odd costumes and the curious sights at once 
attract you. You must go on foot, for there are no carriages fit to ride 
in, and if there were the narrow streets would make them almost use- 
less, especially in Pera. In the absence of heavy drays, you will meet 
a dozen men with long poles, upon which is hung a hogshead of 
molasses or sugar, transporting it through the streets in that manner, 
instead of on trucks. These ka-mals, or public carriers, become so 
accustomed to bearing heavy burdens, that some of them will carry 



266 RIP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. 

eight hundred or nine hundred pounds. Threading our way through 
the narrow streets, we crossed the bridge of boats^ and went to one 
of the high towers (Seraskier) erected by the government, to serve as 
watch-stations in case of fire. Every street and lane in the city is dis- 
cernible, and on the top a man is walking round every minute of the 
day and night, casting his eyes over the city. At the least sign of fire 
he sets his telegraphic apparatus in operation, and gives the alarm. 
AVe climbed up a dark, winding staircase of two hundred and sixty- 
one ten-inch steps, and reached the top, where a magnificent view of 
the city appeared. Before the eye at a single glance was the famous 
Seraglio, the mosque of St. Sophia and that of Sultan Achmed, 
the Bosphorus with its ships, the Golden Horn with its bridge of 
boats, and in the distance the Sea of Marmora! All around were 
the glittering minarets and shining roofs — a panorama of great 
beauty. 

A walk to St. Sophia is one of the first things done by the visitor. 
Guided by the four tall minarets, we found the famous edifice. It was 
erected by Constantine, and dedicated to St. Sophia. When it came 
into the hands of the Mohammedans, they erased all the evidences 
of Christian worship, leaving only the figure of the saint in the 
niche over what once was the grand altar. The mosque is the 
largest in the world, being very nearly equal in extent to St. Peter's 
in Rome. 

You will remember that I made a short visit to Europe some 
years ago. At that time the Seraglio of the late Sultan was in exist- 
ence. It was burned afterward. At the time I visited it, I wrote in 
my diary a description, which I will give you: 

"The Seraglio is an interesting place to those who can gain admit- 
tance. A government firman must be secured, and a government 
official accompany you. The Seraglio is the old palace of the Sultan, 
and once contained his harem. The grounds are three miles in cir- 
cumference, and occupy the old city of Byzantium. We entered by 



IN TURKEY. 267 

the main gate, noting the niches in which the heads of the political 
prisoners used to be exposed after their execution. At the main 
passage we were obliged to take off our boots and plod along in 
stockings. The royal bed-chamber, with the princely couch nine 
feet long, and thirteen feet wide, capacious enough for a dozen per- 
sons; the library; a dining apartment, which did not pay for looking 
through; the luxurious baths, fitted up with the greatest elegance; the 
hall in which the wives of the sultan are accustomed to amuse them - 
selves and him; the bed-chambers; the elegant pavilions of the 
sultan's favorite wives; the ante-rooms and secret passages were all 
open to our inspection. On the outside were fine groves, sparkling 
fountains, and delightful arbors. There was an air of indolent repose 
about the whole, but no symmetry, or neat taste. We were permitted 
to inspect everything very freely, because the sultan having built a 
new palace, the wives, one hundred and fifty in number, were removed. 
The collection of buildings are faded, but must have been quite gor- 
o-eous in their dav." 

Among the objects of interest in the city is the ancient Hippo- 
drome, a large quadrangular enclosure, in which stands the granite 
obelisk of Theodosius, and the spiral pillar, said to have been brought 
from Delphi, where it anciently formed a part of the tripod. The 
fountain of the thousand pillars is near by. 

A day in Constantinople will be given to the Bazaars. The gen- 
eral appearance of these places of trade has been described so often 
that I need not repeat the description. Those at Constantinople differ 
from those in other Eastern cities only in their extent, rarity and rich- 
ness. The goods displayed here are very much finer than in the 
other cities. There are cashmere shawls and camel's-hair shawls of 
almost fabulous expense. The silks are also very showy and varied 
in colors and texture. We made some purchases in this line, and our 
lady friends would have been amused to see us at it. We went into 
a low, dark shop, in a gloomy street. When we arrived, three 



268 RIP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. 

ladies were there, and they filled the store, and we waited until they 
came out. Then we went in and were seated. A cup of coffee — 
villanous stuff — was brought us, which we swallowed. Then came 
the pipe, which one or two of our party took and puffed. By this 
time a crowd of men and boys had gathered round and were looking 
on. When the proprietor of the bazaar thought the pipe and coffee 
had begun to work, he brought out his silks. But we were met with 
two difficulties to begin with. Two questions came up which we 
found it hard to settle. How many yards of silk will it take for a 
lady's dress ? As far as I knew, it might have been five or fifty-five. 
So we compromised on that subject, made a calculation as to the cir- 
cumference of the article, and finally concluded that if there was no 
expansion before we rfeached home, the pieces shown us would be 
quite enough. And well they might. There were yards enough in 
each piece to wrap up a dozen ladies, of any reasonable proportions, and 
we felt safe on that score. Then the price? I know how to buy hats, 
boots, vests, coats, pants — anything that belongs to the male creature. 
Silks were out of my line, but some of our party who are very 
kind-hearted men, and do their wives' shopping for them, knew how 
much the fabric ought to be, and I wisely kept still, heard them talk, 
and found out how much to offer. So we came away, each with a 
piece of silk under his arm, and were followed by a troop of traders 
who had something to sell. A day spent in the bazaars is a very inter- 
esting one, and a stranger in Constantinople will never tire looking at 
the curious fancy articles that are found in every direction. 

A trip down the Sea of Marmora, and up the Bosphorus into the 
Black Sea is generally taken by travellers, who never fail to enjoy it. 
No one will omit to sweep up and down the Golden Horn in one of 
the little light caiques, a fancy boat peculiar to Constantinople. 
This boat is a long, low thing, resembling our race-boats. A number 
ofthem skimming through the Golden Horn, one after another, gives 
you the idea of a regatta on our own waters. There are no seats. 



IN TURKEY. 269 

The passenger puts himself in the centre on a rich cushion, and 
stretches out his legs, while the boatman propels him through the 
waters with lightning speed. Sometimes one man rows, and often 
more. The caiques vary in beauty and richness, from the humble 
boat of the poor man to the sultan's decorated vessel. 

Rip Van Winkle. 



270 



RIP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. 



IN GREECE. 




TEMPLE OF SUNIUM. 



Charlie was returning to his home one evening, just at dusk, 
when he met Dr. Oldschool, who stopped him, and made inquiry about 
the meeting of the Triangle which was to be held that evening. 

" I wished to ask if you would allow some of us old people to come 
in this evening? " 

"Yes, sir, of course ; you are always invited.'' 

"But we wish to come in a little stroncrer force to-night." 

"I see no objection to it." 



IN GREECE. 271 

" Then I will take the liberty of inviting fifteen or twenty to come 
with me." 

" The more the merrier," was the answer. 

Promptly at the hour, Dr. Oldschool came with forty or fifty gen- 
tlemen and ladies. They brought with them loaves of cake, boxes of 
strawberries, cans of ice-cream, and before the bewildered boys could 
say an3^thing, a table was spread, the good things were handed about, 
and a grand good time was being had by all present. The ice-cream 
melted mysteriously away, the strawberries disappeared, and the good 
things generally were devoured. After a half-hour had been taken 
up in this way. Dr. Oldschool introduced Mr. Speakwell, a young 
lawyer who had often been in at the readings, who, he said, had a little 
red-hot speech in his head. Mr. Speakwell addressed the Triangle, 
and at the end of a few remarks, he placed in the hands of each of the 
three boys, a neat gold watch, as the testimonial of their older friends, 
and then sat down. 

The boys looked at their watches, then at each other, and then at 
their kind friends. Whispering a moment to each other, they turned 
toward the group who stood enjoying their surprise, and Charlie 
stepped forward, and in behalf of himself and his two friends, thanked 
the gentlemen and ladies for their kindness, and made a neat impromptu 
speech, which gave much satisfaction to all the parties present. They 
clapped and cheered, but Charlie was not confused, but went through 
with his speech, after which he called the Triangle to order, to hear 

the letter of the evening. 

Athens. 

We left Constantinople one evening about dusk, swept out of the 
Golden Horn, darted through the Hellespont, and glided into the 
bosom of the Mediterranean. In two nights and one day we were 
anchored off the Grecian seaport of Piraeus. Everything was now 
changed — from Turkish to Grecian. We noticed it in everything, — 
in the boats, in the styles of dress, in the buildings, and even in the 



272 



RIP VAN WINKLE 'S TEA VELS. 



faces of the people. Piraeus is six miles from Athens, and it was at 
this place that Paul landed when he made that memorable visit to the 
Grecian capital, recorded in the Book of Acts. 

On landing at Piraeus, we took carriages and rode to the city. 
There is no city where all the objects of interest are so clustered 
too-ether as at Athens. The wonders of that remarkable place are all 
close at hand. They surmount and cluster around the Acropolis, 
a rocky hill, one hundred and fift}^ feet high, and five hundred feet 
across, rising abruptly and almost perpendicularly. This hill was the 
centre of the ancient city, and is all that remains of it. At its base, is 
the Theseum^ a large edifice filled with the sculptured remains of 
Athens. It is the best-preserved building of the ancient days. Near 
by it is the temple of Zeus, which formerly was three hundred and fifty- 
four feet long, and one hundred and sevent}'^ feet wide. Beautiful 
columns that once surrounded it are now fallen about in disorder. 

Ascending the hill, a spur of the Acropolis is found, called Mars 
Hill, on which is the Areopagus. It is a platform cut in the top of a 
rock, and is reached by a flight of sixteen steps. Here the famous 
court of Areopagus was held, and the seats of the judges hewn in the 
rock still remain. This memorable court was distinguished for its 
antiquity, dating back beyond the times of Solon, and its fame was not 
impaired as late as the age of Cicero. The judges were fifty-one in 
number, and were appointed for life. When they sat for judgment, 
it was always in the open air, that righteous Heaven might witness 
their decisions, and always in the night, that their minds might 
not be distracted by surrounding objects. These judges not only 
passed sentence on murder, theft, and the gross crimes, but they pun- 
ished indolence, rewarded industry and virtue, and formed a moral as 
well as a criminal court. When Paul preached against the multipli- 
city of the Athenian deities, he was taken before this tribunal, and 
made a convert of one of the judges, Dionysius, who pleaded his cause 
and secured his release. Here, that grand discourse, a miracle ol 



274 



RIP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. 



power, which has been read with so much delight in almost every 
known tongue, was delivered within sight of the thousand-godded tem- 
ple of Minerva. This was the tribunal which condemned Socrates, the 
ancient philosopher; offended at the purity of his teachings, even in 
that heathen age. His dungeon, hewn out of the solid rock, is not far 
distant. It is so low that a tall man can hardly stand upright, so close 
and foul that one can hardly breathe. A narrow door through which 
the prisoner was thrust in, and a hole in the top to let down his food, 
are the only avenues to let the light of day into the miserable cell 
where one of the srreatest of the ancients drank the hemlock and 
died. 

Still ascending we reach the summit of the Acropolis. In the da3''S 
of its glory it had five gates and five ascents. The principal of these 
gates was a wonderful one, built of Pentelican marble, and famous 
throughout the globe. Originally there were three buildings on the 
the hill — the Propyla;a, the Erechtheum, and the Parthenon. 

The Prop3-l3ea was the arsenal, or fort, and was ver}^ fine, and 
had a flight of sixty marble steps, and these stairs were seventy feet 
broad. It was an elegant r)oric structure, more adorned than the 
world-renowned Parthenon. You see the broken columns and pillars 
of this famous structure. 

Passing then to the northern side of the Acropolis, where are found 
the ruins of the Erechtheum, we find the remains of the temple erected 
to the honor of the son of Vulcan. But the Parthenon is the o^reatest 
object of interest. It is a Doric structure, two hundred and twenty- 
eight feet long, and one hundred and one feet in breadth. It is sur- 
rounded with columns, forty-six in number. It is built of Pentelican 
marble, and is most beautiful in its design and architectural finish. 
This edifice is yet the wonder of Athens. No person can gaze 
upon it without respect for the dead and perished race that reared 
its walls, and crowded them with the monuments of their art and 
£renius. 



276 RIP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. 

Clustering about the base of the Acropolis are the objects of interest 
— the Stadium, or ancient Grecian race-course; the Theatre on the 
side of the hill, yet very perfect, its seats for live thousand persons 
remaining as of old, cut in the rock; the Lyceum, where the Grecian 
youth were instructed in their philosophies; the pulpit of Demos- 
thenes, where of old he poured his eloquence forth upon the crowds; 
the Lantern of Demosthenes; the Tower of the Winds; the Theatre of 
Bacchus, and many other objects of interest. As you stand on the top 
of the Acropolis you can cast your eye over them all! From that hill 
you also have a tine view of the modern cit}' of Athens. You look 
down into it from the foot of those colossal pillars, that yet stand in 
their ruined vastness and grandeur. 

The streets of Athens are wide and clean. The houses are neat 
and attractive. The people are well-dressed, and there is an air 
of pleasantness about everything. Besides we rode through that 
city in carriages. We had been on horses so long, that a change, 
though the springs were hard, and the seats poor, was quite agreeable. 

At the time I w^as tirst in Greece, King Otho I. was on the throne. 
He was, as you know, the son of Louis King of Bavaria. His suc- 
cession came about in the following manner. 

After a revolution in which the Greeks had achieved their inde- 
pendence, they found themselves without a royal family, and invited 
Otho, then only seventeen years old, to fill the throne. The propo- 
sition was approved by England, France, and Russia, and the young 
man was placed in power. This was in 1833. But he did not 
become an active monarch until his twentieth year, the government 
being administered by regents until that period. His wife was 
Frederica Amelia, of the House of Oldenburg. When Otho entered 
upon the active duties of his kingly office in 1835, he selected 
Bavarians mostly for his counsellors, which gave great offence to 
his people, and he became so unpopular that soon after he was 
driven from his throne, and compelled to run back in haste to Bavaria. 






lili! '' ' 




• ' -^mn. 



278 



RIP VAN WINKLE 'S TRA VELS. 



The people brought out his throne and burned it in the streets. The 
royal carriage met with the same fate, and the name of Otho became 
the scorn of the whole people. It is also known that the Greeks, after 
iinvitng Prince Alfred of England to take the throne, and receiving a 




GREEK WATER-CARRIERS. 



refusal, united on a Danish prince, who took the throne, and now 
reigns and is beloved by his subjects. 

In Athens there are several newspapers vv^ell conducted, and very 
reputable in character, among which are the EI pis, Aion, and Spec- 
tateur de V Orient. 







■■£i? ia..">^ 



TEMPLE OF HEROD. 



28o RIP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. 

The city of Athens has had a tumultuous history. It has been in 
the hands of friends and foes, and is now the pity of the earth. It was 
besieged and conquered by the Turks in 1828. On the 6th of May, 
the grand battle between the besieged Greeks and their invaders took 
place. One thousand five hundred of the Athenians w^ere slain; three 
thousand men and women were marched down from the Acropolis 
and transported. The Turks took possession, and kept it, until by the 
intervention of European powers, it was- restored to the Greeks in 
1832. One can but feel sad in Athens — the classic city — now so 
fallen. The mournful words of Byron come up in memory, — 

" The isles of Greece ! the isles of Greece ! 
Where burning Sappho loved and sung, — 
Where grew the arts of war and peace, — 

Where Delos rose and Phoebus sprung ! 
Eternal summer gilds them j'et, 
But all, except their sun, is set." 

Riding down to the port, we left Greece in the French steamer 
for Marseilles. The sea was calm and tranquil. For several days 
not a ripple disturbed its surface. It was like a sea of glass. 
We left on Friday. On Sunday morning we turned into the 
Straits of Messina, with Italy on the right and Sicil}- on the left. 
Towering up, far back from the shores of Sicily, was smoking Etna, 
while close to us, on the Italian shore, rose the ribs of the steamer, 
embedded in the mud, on board of which Garibaldi embarked for 
Venice, but which he was obliged to run ashore to escape the block- 
ading fleet of the Austrians which pursued him. In compan}^ with 
him atthat time Avas Ugo Bassa, who was flayed alive by the bloody 
Haynau, the Austrian butcher, whom Barcla3'*'s brewers came so near 
throwing into their vats when he visited England some time after. 
They landed, after stranding their vessel, and continued their wander- 
ings. Anna Garibaldi, the patriot's wife, died two days after, of 
fatigue and exposure, while he, with a decree denouncing death to any 
one who should give him bread, water, or shelter, out against him, 









POZZUOLT, THE ANCIENT PUTEOLT. 



282 RIP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. 

pursued his way North, and was at length arrested and banished. He 
came to New York, and remained until new revolutions called 
him to Italy, where he has figured since, bravely if not very wisely. 
Going up we passed Syracuse, at which place Paul stopped while on 
his way from Malta to Rome, after his shipwreck. On the other side 
is Reggio, the ancient Rhegium, which Paul sa^s they " fetched a 
compass "to get at. He left Rhegium and sailed to Puteoli, and from 
there went to the Eternal City by land, meeting on the way the 
brethren of the Roman Church at Appia Forum and the Three 
Taverns. A few days brought us into the harbor of Messina, where 
we stayed for a short time. 

Rip Van Winkle. 



IN SICILY. 



283 



IN SICILY. 




STROMBOLI. 



The first business at the next meeting was a comparison of 
watches. 

" How is yours, Will?" asked Charlie. 

Will told the time. Then Hal and Charlie showed their watches, 
and it was found that Charlie and Will had kept together, while Hal 
had gained two minutes on the others. 

"Now, boys," said Hal, "I am right, and you are wrong." 

"How do you prove that? " asked Will. 

"Why, you have both fallen behind two minutes." 



284 P^^P VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. 

" How do you prove it? " 

"Just as you prove I have gained." 

"But here are two against one." 

" Majorities are often wrong, and minorities right, as we have been 
taught by Master Van Wert." 

" But this is a different case." 

" I don't see it." 

" How can we settle it? " 

" Why, go to some standard time, and regulate our watches by 
that, and then at the next meeting we can tell." 

It was agreed to do so. It was evident that the boys were pleased 

with the fine presents they had received, and well they might be. 

After^they had spent some time in the comparison, and had expressed 

their delight over and over again, they put the watches away, and 

opened the Master's letter for the evening. 

Messina. 

We reached this port early one morning, and a number of our fel- 
low-travellers, who had not been in Ital}^ left the steamer, and jour- 
neyed toward Rome, leaving us alone, to wander about for a short 
time on this fertile island in the Mediterranean Sea. It is separated 
from the mainland by the Straits of Messina, and has an area of 
about eleven thousand square miles. This city is a pleasant one, and 
the variety of gay costumes seen in the streets give the place a lively 
and attractive appearance. The flower-girls, the fruit-venders, the 
postilions, the porters, and even the beggars, seem to have a happ}', 
cheerful look, and are showily dressed in high colors. The head- 
dresses are often ver}' fanciful, and if seen in the streets of New York 
would create much merriment. The flower-girls look themselves like 
monstrous bouquets. With an enormous basket of flowers on their 
heads, they walk the streets, like moving bunches of roses. 

This city, the capital of the province, is delightfully located, and 
the approach from the sea is charming. The population is not far 



286 RIP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. 

from one hundred thousand souls. As you enter the harbor, several 
fine forts are seen, looking as if they could send the little steamer to 
the bottom in a very short time. The town, rising back of the harbor, 
forms an amphitheatre, and presents a beautiful spectacle to the eye. 
Within the city, the churches, theatres, the naval arsenal, the custom- 
house, and several other large buildings, attract attention, and are 
worthy of inspection, but the traveller can " do up " the place in a very 
few days. In a sail-boat, we went out upon the harbor, and visited 
several of the vessels, of which there were many at anchor, some just 
arrived, and others about to sail. Oranges, lemons, raisins, and fil- 
berts, were conspicuous among the freights. Wine, brimstone, 
hides, and some other things, go to make up the exports, which reach, 
to the United States alone, nearly a million dollars per annum. Sat- 
ins and damasks are manufactured in Messina to a considerable 
extent, and are exported in large quantities to other countries. The 
churches here, as well as at Palermo and other cities in Sicily, are 
very fine, and all have works of art in them which draw much atten- 
tion. Messina has been subjected to the fortunes of war, having been 
taken and retaken by hostile foes. In i860. Garibaldi took the place, 
drove out the soldiers of the King of Naples, and set up his flag on 
the walls. 

Palermo. 

This is the capital of the province which bears its name — a city 
of about two hundred thousand inhabitants. It is walled, and stands 
on the sea-coast, on the north side of the island. The harbor is fine, 
being formed by a mole, three hundred feet long, and is a fine defence 
from the storms. Palermo is a city of fountains, squares, and statues. 
It has a much more ancient look than has Messina. The churches are 
fine, and some of them well worthy of being seen. The cathedral 'is 
a noble structure of the twelfth century. It is of Gothic architecture, 
and the roof is supported by eighty granite pillars, which separate the 
edifice into a large number of chapels, which are dedicated to diflferent 



lip \ 







288 RIP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. 

saints. One of them is a very curious chapel, and is inscribed to St. 
Rosaha, the patron saint of the province. Who she was, what she 
did, and how she helps the city, I must leave you to find out. The 
church contains the mausoleum of Roger the Norman. Emperor 
Frederick II. also has a tomb here. The church of Del Gesu has 
extensive vaults, in which are the bones of a large number of Capuchin 
monks. Some of them are hundreds of years old. They stand with 
their monkish robes on as when they lived, and look out from their 
eyeless sockets upon the living throngs that venture into these recep- 
tacles of the dead. 

The Palace is a fine edifice, built in part by Roger, in 1129. 
With its observator}^, arsenal, armory, and art-galleriesj it is an impor- 
tant structure. There is a university in Palermo, which has a large 
library, and was once a seat of learning of much importance. When 
the city was taken by General Garibaldi, he made it the head of the 

government, the capital of the reformed power. 

Reggio. 

This is a little walled town, which figures in the Scriptures. You 
will remember that Paul was sent to Rome, to be tried by Caesar. 
On his way he suffered shipwreck, and was cast upon the island of 
Melita, where various things befell him. When the spring came, the 
soldiers embarked with him on board the ship whose sign was — "The 
Twin Brothers." They stopped at Smyrna, and tarried three days, 
and then came to Reggio, or Rhegum, as it was called in ancient 
times. The place is now hardly worth a visit. It is famous for its 
pottery manufactures. 

I visited Syracuse, though I saw nothing to keep me there three 
days, and after going about over the island, am now deliberating 
which way to go next — whether to stay through the hot months in 
these southern latitudes, or find my way into the ice-fields of Switzer- 
land. 

Rip Van Winkle. 



290 



RIP VAN WINKLE 'S TRA VELS. 



IN PORTUGAL AND SPAIN. 



„1„ Visii 




GREAT MOSQUE OF CORDOVA. 

Master Van Wert was sitting in the balcony of the hotel in 
Messina, soon after his last letter was written, when a rough, but 
friendly hand was laid upon his shoulder, and he was familiarly 
greeted by a friendly voice. 

"Well done, here is Professor Van Wert! Who would have 
expected to meet him here?" 

"And who has met him here?" asked the master, with an out- 
stretched hand. 



IN PORTUGAL AND SPAIN. 29 1 

" Don't 3^ou know me ?" 

" No, I think I do not." 

" But I know you, though I have not seen you before for twenty 
years.'' 

"And where did you see me then?" 

"At the time I graduated, in 1861." 

"Ah! then you have been a pupil of mine? But I cannot recall 
your name, though yowx face has a somewhat familiar look, but I 
could not tell when or where I had seen it." 

"Well, I am the boy who took the first prize for declamation." 

"Ah! Sammy Scapegrace? I knew," continued the master, "that 
you had succeeded in life, become a lawyer, been elected to Congress; 
but with your beard and other changes, I did not recognize the slim 
and roguish boy in the stout man that I see before me." 

"Well, where are you going?" asked Scapegrace. 

" That was a question I was trying to settle." 

"How long have you been from home?" 

"Nearly two years. But allow me to ask which way you go?" 

" I have found a trading-steamer that goes to Portugal, her desti- 
nation being Lisbon." 

"When does she start?" 

" To-morrow." 

"Do you want a fellow-traveller?" 

" Certainly I do, when I can find one for whom I feel the respect 
that I do for you, Professor Van Wert." 

"What do you do after your arrival in Lisbon?" 

" I stay in Portugal awhile, then cross over into Spain, where I 
have some business in the larger cities which I shall visit, and after 
that is done, I shall embark at Barcelona for Marseilles, and I 
should be glad to have you with me throughout the journey. While 
I am attending to business, you can be attending to pleasure, sight- 
seeing, and curiosity-hunting." 



292 



RIP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. 



So it was decided that the two should leave on board the steamer, 
which was to start the next day. The master took his passage, and 
at noon the next day, was steaming out of the harbor of Messina. 

The Triangle, in due season, received his letter, in which, after 
recounting the way in which he was induced to take this circuitous 
route, he gives an account of the places he visited. 






BARCELLOS. 



Lisbon. 

A delightful summer voyage brought us to this port. The passage 
through the Straits of Gibraltar, which connect the Mediterranean Sea 
with the Atlantic Ocean, was indescribably pleasant to me. 

We cast anchor in the harbor of the town, and spent a day or two 
among the natives and the British soldiers, who garrison the place. 
This rock has been in the hands of the British since 1704. It was ceded 
to the Crown by the treaty of Utrecht, in 1711. Various attempts 
have been made to dislodge the English, but all in vain. France and 



IN PORTUGAL AND SPAIN. 



293 



Spain combined, tried it, but failed. It is one of the strategic points 
which England thinks worth keeping at large expense. The British 
nation pays for many such places. In the London Peace Congress of 
1 85 1, Richard Cobden, in a grave speech, alluded to this fact. 
" Where," asked he, " was there a nation that had ever occupied so 
many and such strategic positions on the surface of the globe ? They 




GIBRALTAR, 



had fortified strong places, and garrisoned them all over the world, to 
such an extent, that, if a war ever should come between them and any 
other strong maritime power, the first step necessary to be taken 
would be to blow up and abandon some of them. They had Gibral- 
tar, Malta, and Corfu, in the Mediterranean. Crossing the Isthmus of 
Suez, they had Aden. Then came the Mauritius, which was called 
the outwork of India. Returning, they had a military position at the 



2g.j. RIP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. 

Cape. Crossing the Atlantic, westward, they had the powerful for- 
tress of Halifax, ready to meet all comers. Going from the continent, 
they came to the Island of Bermuda, where they were laying out 
enormous sums in fortifications; and it was but the other day that he 
had heard an argument to induce Parliament to keep up the fortifica- 
tions of Jamaica. He should also mention the fortifications of Quebec, 
which was called the Gibraltar of Canada." 

Reaching Lisbon, we had ample time to look about. At once we 
were introduced to new customs and manners, a new language, a 
strange currency, and a curious people. Lisbon is a beautiful city, 
and with its fountains and flowers, palaces and gardens, impresses a 
stranger very favorably. The fruit merchants are seen everywhere, 
and this business is very extensive, but probably not very remunera- 
tive. The fish merchants also do quite an extensive business, and 
are a numerous class. The streets are not of the best kind. Many 
of them are narrow and filthy. Many of the houses show the 
dilapidating effects of the earthquake. You remember, perhaps, 
that in the earthquake of 1755, more than fifty thousand persons lost 
their lives. The palaces are attractive and strong, that of Belem 
commanding the first attention. The Tower of Belem is one of the 
noticeable structures, and looks as if it might stand a long siege, and 
suffer a heavy bombardment, without falling. The philanthropist 
will find his attention drawn to the hospitals, which are very numer- 
ous and admirably conducted. Orphans and foundlings, poor men 
and women, and other persons needing help, find numerous places 
where it can be found. The churches, like those in all Catholic 
countries, are filled with the pictures of saints and- images of holy 
persons. The arsenal, the cathedral, and other buildings, are worth 
a visit, but hardly merit a description, after we have seen those of 
Italy, France, and other countries. 

Visits to Oporto, Elvas, Ovar, Evora, Setubal, and some other 
places, took up a few weeks, and when they were over, my friend 




USH MERCHANTS. 



296 



RIP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. 



Scapegrace, as well as myself, were ready to leave Portugal, having 
suffered so many inconveniences, and seen so little to repay us. It is 
one of the smallest kingdoms of Europe, having an area of only thirty- 
five thousand five hundred square miles, and a population of about 
four millions. The country is rich with mines of copper, lead, and iron, 
and only the indolence of the people and the lack of enterprise pre- 
vent these resources from being brought forward to enrich the nation. 
There is no reason but a want of enterprise why Portugal should not 
be one of the most thriving of European nations, instead of being one of 
the poorest and most thriftless. The soil is generally fertile, and the 
crops are large when work is put upon the land. But Portuguese farm- 
ing is not a thing to boast of. The implements of labor are sadly 
behind the times. Hemp, flax, wheat, wine, and other staples, are 
grown to a considerable extent, but if a lot of Yankee farmers, such as 
have turned the prairies of the West into gardens of fertility, could 
take the climate and the soil of Portugal, they would soon transform 
the whole country. However, the exports of Portugal are not small, 
and, with the fruits and wines, bring a large revenue to the few^ who 
are courageous enough to work in a land where indolence is the law. 
There are gold mines in the countr}^, especially in the vicinity of 
Setubal, but gold does not exist in quantities sufficient to excite the 
cupidity or the enterprise of the people. On the whole, we went to 
Portugal with pleasure, and left with pleasure. 

One fine day we embarked at Lisbon, and, after a short but delight- 
ful passage on a steamer, reached 

Cadiz. 

If you will consult your maps, you will see that the place is situ- 
ated on a projecting extremity of land, in the south-west part of the 
kingdom. It is the most prominent seaport in Spain, and the flags of all 
nations are seen floating from the shipping in the spacious harbor. 
The city has no great claims to beauty, though the Alameda is a thor- 
oughfare of considerable elegance, and on the Calle Ancha crowds of 



)#..!:L'!.>»!:iiS|!hi;iiitaiujLiiil]illijiliiiiiiiE 




I illi 












'liliilill 



298 RIP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. 

people may be seen, giving it a very gay appearance. There are the 
usual churches, convents, and religious institutions, but in these the 
stranger does not take much interest, as he has generally seen more 
elegant ones elsewhere. It is in a commercial aspect that Cadiz is 
famous, and I spent the time I remained here, in looking about among 
the vessels, and seeing the glory of the place, its magnificent bay, 
w^hich is guarded and fortified so that no intruding ship could enter, 
except under a fierce fire. The tssro forts that stand as sentinels — 
Matagorda and Pourtales — are worth a visit, even to persons not 
especially interested in military matters. Cadiz is certainly not the 
least interesting city I have seen in this long tour. 

Seville. 

This city is associated with the horrors of the Spanish Inquisition, 
which had its head here, and dreadful are the tales of history in relation 
to the tortures inflicted on poor, defenceless heretics. We may rejoice 
that those scenes have passed away forever, but every step we took 
in Seville reminded us of what had been done in the name of religion, 
in the days of that dreadful institution. 

The remains of an ancient amphitheatre are found here, the seats 
cut in the rock, but the people have used the hewn stone for building 
purposes, and the structure is nearly destroyed, enough remaining, 
however, to tell what it was in its palmy days. 

The most conspicuous object in the city is the Moorish tower 
known as the Giralda. 

The Alhambra and the Alcazar are among the famous palaces. 
The Town-hall and Exchange are noted public buildings. All the 
public edifices are very elaborate in their design and execution, and 
some of them contain the finest stone- work in the world. 

At Seville we saw the dancing-women so often described by 
travellers. I don't think the ladies of America would like to adopt 
such a style of dancing as we saw at Seville. It disgusted even Mr. 
Scapegrace. I ought, before leaving Seville, to introduce to the Tri- 




RUE NEUVE DES ANGLAIS, OPORTO. 



300 



RIP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. 



angle some of the characters we met. The Spanish PostiHon is one 
of them. As he drives his inules through the streets, with whatever 
he has to draw, he makes noise enough to frighten the v^^hole city. 
One would think that he owned one half the kingdom. His beasts 
are often fantastically caparisoned, and with jingling bells and 
grotesque and gaudy decorations he drives them through the streets, 
conscious to the last degree of his importance. The milkmen driving 
their goats through the streets, and stopping to milk them at the doors 
of their customers, present a novel sight; Scapegrace would not drink 
it, but I was more philosophical. 

Cordova. 

The nearer we got to the heart of Spain, the more plain became 
the evidences of the old Moorish times. Cordova is a very dull 
and lifeless place, and evidences of decay are seen all around. 
And yet no one can fail to see that when the Moors were here 
in their pride and power, their capital must have been a city 
of great splendor and luxury. The Cathedral, or great mosque, is a 
miracle of architecture. "Its founder," says Dr. Manning, "resolved 
to give his capital the finest mosque in the world. He is reported 
to have traced the plan, and to have worked himself upon the build- 
ing with hod and trowel in order to set his people an example of 
diligence, humility and piety. The Arab historians say that it originally 
rested on one thousand two hundred columns. On one side were 
nineteen gates, of which the centre was covered with gold plates, the 
others of bronze, beautifully decorated. The minarets terminated in 
gilt-balls, surmounted by golden pomegranates. The vast edifice was 
lit by four thousand seven hundred lamps, fed by oil perfumed with 
amber, aloes, and frankincense. And enough remains to warrant us in 
crediting all they report. Entering at any of the doors, one is 
bewildered by a forest of columns which stretch away in every direc- 
tion. Nearly a thousand of the original number are yet remaining. 
Twent3^-nine naves run in one direction and nineteen in another. 



I 




^HE GIRALDA. 



S02 



RIP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. 



The temples of Sicily, Greece, Rome, Carthage, and Egypt were de- 
spoiled to contribute to this masterpiece of Moorish art.'' The details 
« -- — _ of this great structure are 




as 



the 



general 



as grand 

effect is overpowering. 
The Court of Oranges 
(Patio de los Naranjas) is 
a beautiful spot — being a 
quadrangle within the walls, 
containing fountains, palm, 
orange, lemon, and citron 
trees, with marble and mo- 
saic pavements — a per- 
fect fairy-land. 

But Cordova as a whole 
is stupid, dilapidated, and 
dreary, wanting what gives 
to some other Spanish 
cities their peculiar charm 
— gay costumes and colors 
in the streets and houses. 

The sluggish Guadal- 
quivir, as it rolls by the 
city, seems to catch the 
spirit of decay, and reflects the lazy, indolent habits, of the people 
who dwell upon its beautiful banks. What a change since the days 
of the great Abd-ur-rahman, who ruled royally in the land now the 
home of the Spaniard. All the approaches to Cordova are very fine. 
They are along avenues overhung with fruit and flowers, beautified 
by the cactus and the palm, while groves of olives make shade and 
beauty all along the highways. To Americans, living in the cold 
inhospitable regions of the Northern Atlantic coast, the profusion of 



THE COURT OF ORANGES. 



I 




THE SPANISH POSTILION. 



3^4 



RIP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. 



tropical plants and fruits is a most charming spectacle. Nature knows 
no decay. The homes, palaces, and churches of Cordova are 
dilapidated, but Nature is as warm, sunny and beautiful as we may 
suppose it to have been six thousand years ago. 




THE MULETEER OF GRANADA. 



Toledo. 



We entered Toledo by the Puerta del Sol, the old Moorish gate- 
way, relieved to find the place so different from stagnated Cordova. 
On the way in we met a mounted novelty, known as the muleteer. 



IN PORTUGAL AND SPAIN. 305 

Washington Irving says : " It has a most picturesque effect, also, to 
meet a train of muleteers in some mountain pass. First you hear the 
bells of the leading mules, breaking with their simple melody the 
stillness of the airy height; or, perhaps the voice of the muleteer, 
admonishing some tardy or wandering animal, or chanting at the full 
strength of his lungs some traditionary ballad. At length 3/ou see the 
mules, slowly winding along the cragged defile, sometimes descending 
precipitous cliffs, so as to present themselves in full relief against the 
sky, sometimes toiling up the deep chasms below you. As they 
approach you descry their gay decorations of worsted tufts, tassels, and 
saddle-cloths, while as they go by, the ever ready trabi^co, slung be- 
hind the packs and saddles, gives a hint of the insecurity of the road." 

The Cathedral, the ruined convent (^San Juan de los Reyes)., the 
Museum, the Alcazar, the Jewish synagogue, and some other build- 
ings, are worth a visit. The streets are narrow, and nothing to boast 
of for elegance and beauty. What the people do and how they live, 
it is hard for a stranger to see without a microscope. 

You boys at home will want me to say something about the 
" Toledo blade." This famous sword once manufactured here, and 
Avhich became so celebrated throughout the continent, no longer gives 
fame to Toledo. The artisans who once manufactured it, have lost 
their pre-eminence, and the " Toledo blade " is a thing of the past. It 
is a significant fact that prosperity in all these old Moorish cities has 
sadly declined since they were subjugated by those, who, in the old 

mosques, set up the altar of papacy. 

Madrid. 

Entering Madrid from the south, we have a fine view of the royal 
city of Spain. At once we seem transported into the midst of gayety. 
The streets are full of people. The venders of various things make 
the long streets echo with their shrill cries. The bagpipe-pla3^ers 
attract the children and women, and the whole aspect of the place is 
cheerful and gay. 



3o6 



RIP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS, 



The Royal Palace is the conspicuous object, and is well 
worthy of Spanish dignity. Externally it is an imposing spectacle, 
and internally it has all the attractions of a kingly residence. It 
has seen many changes, and witnessed the incomings and out- 
goings of many royal personages. 

The Prado is the famous 

and fashionable promenade, and 
the elite of the city can here be 
seen on any favorable day, out 
in full numbers and strength. 

The churches are elegant, 
especially that of the Atocha 
— dedicated to the patron saint 
of Madrid. The pleasures and 
amusements of the people are 
numerous, and as I allude to 
them, I have no doubt that 
the members of the Triangle 
will at once think of the sport 
which is most intimately con- 
nected with Spain — the bull- 
fight. Well, let me give you 
a description of the bull-fight 
as it is described by Dr. 
Manning: 
" Entering the Plaza de Toros, one sees a vast amphitheatre, open 
to the sky, with an arena in the centre. The seats, which rise tier 
above tier, in concentric circles, will accommodate many thousand 
spectators; that at Seville seats eleven thousand persons; that at 
Madrid, twelve thousand five hundred; that of Valencia, seventeen 
thousand. The seats are usually filled to their utmost capacity before 
the hour of commencement. A double barrier encloses the arena, so 




HONEY-SELLER OF MADRID. 



3o8 



RIP VAN WINKLE 'S TRA VELS. 



that if the bull leaps over the first, there still remains a second between 
himself and the spectators. At the hour announced, generally in the 
afternoon, a procession enters the arena, headed by mounted alguazils^ 
followed by chulos, banderilleros^ -picadors and matadors. The 
procession is drawn by one or two teams of mules, three abreast, gayly 







THE BULL-FIGHT. 



caparisoned. Having marched around the arena to the music of a 
military band, and saluted the president, who occupies a state-boxj 
opposite the principal entrance, the various performers take thei 
places like the fielders in a game of cricket. A trumpet sounds; th 
president tosses the key of the torz'l to the algtiazil^ who catches it i 
his plumed hat, and proceeds to unlock and open the door, leaping asid 



IN PORTUGAL AND SPAIN. 



309 



the instant he has done so, to escape being knocked down and gored 
by the bull. In a few seconds the noble bull rushes in with head 
erect, and looks proudly around. The crowds of spectators greet him 
with excited shouts, and waving of hats and handkerchiefs. Catching 
sight of one of the chulos, he dashes at him. The chulo steps aside, 
waves his mantle over the eyes of the bull, and escapes. The bull 
singles out another, and another, of the gay and glittering throng, but 
with the same result. Sometimes he passes a man so closely, and 
charges upon him so repeatedly, that the fugitive has to escape by 
leaping over the barrier, which he does as lightly as a bird. This part 
of the Jiesta is very beautiful. The brilliant dresses and agile move- 
ments of the men who skim and deport themselves over the arena like 
a cloud of butterflies, the gallant bearing of the bull, his sleek hide, 
and powerful, graceful form, make a dazzling spectacle. The slight 
element of danger, too, adds to the excitement. It is seldom that any 
of the toreros are hurt. But it does sometimes happen that one of 
them slips down and is gored by the bull in his efforts to escape. 

" But to the Spaniards all this is mere child's pla3^ If it continues 
too long they become impatient, and begin to clamor for more 
exciting sport. Two mounted picadors now come forward and 
engage the notice of the bull. The horses they ride are wretched 
beasts, fit only for the knacker's yard, and they are generally 
blinded to make them stand the charge of the bull without flinching. 
Each -picador is armed with a long heavy spear, of which from one to 
two inches of the blade is exposed. They are protected from injury 
by a thick padding over their bodies, and greaves of iron and leather 
upon their legs. The bull forthwith charges upon one of the assail- 
ants, and is received upon his spear, or gari'ocha. Sometimes the 
horseman succeeds in repelling the assailant, but more often the bull, 
mad with excitement, is only infuriated by the wound, and presses on 
in spite of the spear-head in his shoulder. The picador must now 
endeavor to wheel his horse, and so escape the charge. This, howe\'er, 



3IO 



RIP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. 



is very difficult, and if he fails the horns of the bull are driven deep 
into the horse's belly. The chulos endeavor to draw off the attention 
of the assailant, and thus help their comrade to escape. The other 
picador is then attacked, and so the struggle goes on. Sometimes the 
horse falls dead in a moment, the horns penetrating some vital part. 
More often it staggers away bleeding and desperately wounded. 
Sometimes the horse and man together are lifted clean off the ground 
and flung with tremendous force to the earth. I once saw two horses 
staggering about the arena at the same time, their entrails hanging out 
upon the ground; yet the picadors kept their seats unmoved, whilst 
the crowd yelled forth its fierce delight at the spectacle. When a 
horse has been wounded, it is not removed from the arena. So long 
as it can keep on its legs the torei'O retains his place upon its back, 
and invites or repels the attacks of the bulls; a handful of tow may be 
thrust into the gaping wound to stanch the blood and protract for a 
few minutes its wretched life. When it sinks down to die, it is left 
unheeded to struggle in its death agony. The picador leaves the 
arena for a moment and returns upon another horse, which is to suffer 
the same fate. From four to six horses are commonly killed by 
each bull. 

" In about ten or fifteen minutes the bull, enfeebled by loss of blood, 
and exhausted by his repeated charges, begins to flag. It is needful 
to rouse him to fresh fury. Loud shouts are heard for the banderillas. 
The trumpet again sounds, and two banderilleros enter. The first steps 
forward with a long barbed dart in each hand, gayly decorated with 
streamers of ribbons and flowers, and if the bull be lethargic, armed 
with fireworks. He stands just in front of the poor beast, and as it 
stoops to toss him he fixes one in each shoulder, and skips nimbly 
aside. The gayly decorated instruments of torture fall over by their 
own weight, but remain fixed in the wound. A second and a third 
pair are thrust into the poor wretch's neck alongside the first. The 
bull sometimes bounds into the air with pain and fury, sometimes 



{ 



IN PORTUGAL AND SPAIN. 31I 

roars and tears up the sand in his vain endeavors to rid himself of 
the torturing darts. He rushes to and fro, trying to escape or to 
avenge himself upon his tormentors. His hide, glossy as the finest 
satin when he entered the arena, is now covered with blood; his eye, 
which flashed like fire, is dim and bloodshot; his parched tongue 
hangs from his mouth. It is impossible to goad or torture him into 
further fighting. The matador or es-pada now comes forward, and 
watching his opportunity, plunges his sword between the vertebrae 
into the spine. The bull drops dead. The people thunder forth their 
applause. If the feat has been courageously or cleverly performed, 
the ladies shower down their bouquets and the men their hats and 
caps upon their favorite hero. The teams of mules enter and drag 
out the dead bodies of the bull and the horses; sand is sprinkled over 
the pools of blood in the arena; the trumpet again sounds, another 
bull enters, and the same sickening spectacle is repeated again and 
again with slight variations, till the stock of bulls and horses is 
exhausted. 

" It only remains to add that at a first-class fiesta, like those at 
Madrid, Seville, or Valencia, from six to eight bulls, and from twenty 
to forty horses, are killed each time; that they are always on Sundays 
or at one of the great Church festivals ; that every bull-fight costs about 
$2000, and that the profits go to the hospitals of the town." This is a 
fair description of this low and disgusting amusement, which is as 
common as dog-fighting or cock-fighting in America. 

Saragossa. 

What most I wanted to see in this faded, dismantled, ruined old 
city was the leaning tower. I have described that at Pisa. This at 
Saragossa is in some respects more remarkable than that. While in 
the case of the Pisa tower it is a question whether the deviation is the 
result of insufficient foundations or the work of design, in this case 
there is no question. The foundations have settled, and though it has 
come to its bearings, the high tower presents a peculiar appearance. 



312 



RIP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. 



It is built of brick, and overhangs its base nine feet. To a person in 
the tower this deviation from the exact perpendicular seems much 
greater than it is, and v^hen you look down from the dizzy height, you 
can scarcely resist the conviction that the structure has started again 




LEANING TOWER, SARAGOSSA. 

and is going over, to carr}^ you with it, but when you reach the base, 
you find it as firmly fixed as if it was established to the end of time. 

Saragossa is on the river Ebro, and a fine bridge spans the stream, 
and this bridge, with the view that it gives of the tower and the 
churches, is one of the attractions of the place. The churches are 




AQUEDUCT AT SEGOVIA. 



^lA RIP VAN WINKLE'S TRAVELS. 

dilapidated, the public buildings few and mean, and the city generally 
in a squalid condition. 

Barcelona. 
Having visited Granada, where we had an outside and inside view 
of the Alhambra and the Generalife ; Segovia, famous for the 
remains of a wonderful aqueduct; Escurial, where is the famous 
palace built by Philip II., and also several cities and towns on the 
Eastern coast — Cartagena, Candia, and Valencia, we reached Barce- 
lona where we are to embark for France. This city being a place 
of considerable commerce, has a very lively appearance, and in the 
streets are visitors from all parts of Europe — several who have come 
from the various ships. But our purpose is to take passage from Spain 
on the first steamer that will accommodate us. My friend. Scape- 
grace, has completed his business, and I have done up my sight- 
seeing. On reaching Paris I shall form all my plans for the future, 
and perhaps at some future time shall be able to give you the results 

of expeditions in Asia. 

Rip Van Winkle. 

Here we are obliged to leave Master Van Wert, who found a 
steamer for Marseilles on which he took passage, and soon found 
himself at his old quarters in the gay French capital, where he met 
with many friends, received letters and papers from home, and where 
he made arrangements to start on a journey of several months in the 
distant East. 

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